Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Xenophon. I acknowledge your longstanding interest in this issue—and it is a serious issue. The Productivity Commission report, which I released this morning, estimates that there are between 80,000 and 160,000 Australian adults suffering severe problem gambling. But I do not agree with Senator Xenophon’s characterisation of what Senator Macklin, Senator Conroy and I announced this morning. I know from working personally with the Prime Minister on this issue that he remains committed to tackling this issue.

That is why this morning we announced the process going forward. We made three announcements this morning on this issue, which will, I believe, reshape gambling in this country going forward. First, we indicated our support for a national model of precommitment for gaming machines. As Senator Xenophon well knows, this has never occurred and, once implemented, stands to significantly assist in addressing problem gambling in our country. The PC report itself says:

The most targeted and potentially effective measure is to give people the capacity to control the behaviour of their future selves—to pre-commit

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A major advantage of full pre-commitment is that, properly designed, it has the potential to make redundant some other significant regulatory provisions.

But we are going further. We announced that we will not liberalise online gambling, as the PC report recommended. The government is not convinced that liberalising online gambling would have benefits for the Australian community which would outweigh the risks of increased incidents of problem gambling spreading rapidly via this form of technology. The current prohibition on the provision of online gaming services will continue to apply. But we intend to go further. We are committed to examining the regulatory approach taken by other countries with similar regulatory regimes in relation to online gambling, particularly the United States. (Time expired)