Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the minister for that explanation. Again, Senator Kakoschke-Moore will have a number of questions in relation to it. Clearly, credit betting is very problematic when it comes to fuelling, accelerating and causing gambling addiction, but I understand that credit betting from on-course bookmakers—not the corporate bookmakers; the online bookmakers—is very different in terms of levels of harm and the safeguards that can be implemented with on-course bookmakers. The fact that there is that physical contact is quite different—and we acknowledge that.

Of course, I do not support credit betting at all, but I'm also trying to be pragmatic and I do not want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Having said that, I think that a compromise has been reached. Whilst not perfect, it has been done in good faith with the government. We want to see how effective it will be and there obviously needs to be continual review for those parts of the bill that we thought should have gone further. But, for those parts of the bill that did good work in this space in terms of dealing with online gambling and dealing with problem gambling from online betting, this bill is overall a beneficial bill and that is why we should not stand in its way.

Of course, we do want to go further. I am pleased that the minister has sought the advice of Financial Counselling Australia. I launched their report a couple of years ago on the impact of online betting, which was a trigger for introducing the legislation that I introduced, and Senator Kakoschke-Moore has worked with me very closely in terms of this. So we do not stand in the way of these amendments, but we think it is important to raise some concerns about loopholes in relation to the bill and the continual monitoring that needs to take place in respect of that. Having said that, we will not oppose this bill but we think that there are some legitimate questions to ask in terms of the ongoing monitoring of this bill as to its effectiveness.