Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this important discussion today. This matter of public importance is calling for stronger and more effective action from the federal government in relation to the scourge that is gambling and gambling addiction across the country. I want to focus most of my contribution today on the harmful effects of poker machines, particularly in my home state of South Australia.

But I just want to pick up on one point first, and that is in relation to the disappointing loopholes that remain in the government's legislation that is meant to be banning gambling during live sport on television. We know, now that we've seen that legislation, that there are carve-outs and exemptions, and it allows for gambling advertising to continue. It allows for gambling advertising to continue on pay TV, where a lot of sport is shown, and it allows gambling advertising to continue until five minutes before the game starts. So you can have all the prematch entertainment going, with kids sitting in front of it and watching, and they'll be bombarded with gambling ads. We need to close those loopholes, and the Greens will be moving amendments to do so, because this type of gambling and predatory advertising of gambling is damaging to viewers, it's damaging to Australian families, and we know how bad it is to have it rammed down our throats and the throats of our children.

We know the enormous, harmful effects that poker machines have caused to Australians right across the country. In my home state of South Australia, we have more poker machines than ever before. It is disgusting to hear the arguments and the squeals from the industry that they can't possibly have a phase-out of poker machines and that it would damage the bank balances of the hotels and the pubs. If you need to rely on people's addiction—on families not being able to afford their rent, their kids' lunchbox meals or their kids' uniforms, because you're sucking and hoovering up money from families through your poker machines—I'd suggest you've got a bad business model. It's one that's corrupt; it's one that's morally bankrupt; and it's a scourge on our community.

Of course, in South Australia we did have a politician once upon a time, Nick Xenophon, who said that this was his No. 1 priority. We're in the middle of a state election right now, and one of the Nick Xenophon Team's own candidates, Paul Brown, reckons it's unrealistic to ban pokies. He said, 'You just can't remove them from every hotel and every pub.' Well, why not? If they're a scourge on the community, then they should be phased out, which is why the Greens in South Australia, through our MLC Tammy Franks, have a very strong policy to phase out pokies in hotels and pubs over five years. She is standing up for the vulnerable South Australian community. She is standing up against the wickedness of the gambling industry. It is the Greens that are leading the way in South Australia. We should phase out the pokie machines. We should get rid of them. They are a scourge on the community. They suck people's livelihoods, their incomes, and it's time that they went.