Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Askew for her question on this really important issue that matters to all Australians—that is, gambling related harm. That is why this government is absolutely committed to providing support to the almost 240,000 Australians who experience harm as a result of gambling.

Last week the government introduced legislation, which I'm pleased to say passed last night in the House of Representatives, to establish a national self-exclusion register for online wagering. This is a significant piece of legislation, and demonstrates an absolute commitment to respond to the growing concerns in the community about the impacts and the high rate of gambling related harm caused specifically by online gambling.

The register is a voluntary process, where an individual can ban themselves from interactive wagering sites across state boundaries for periods ranging from three months to permanently. It's really important because, specifically, this tool, this first-of-its-kind-in-the-world tool, enables a gambler who sees the need to exclude themselves to be able to do so by a single action. They can actually have themselves deregistered from all gambling sites.

As much as possible, we need to also make sure that our policies allow Australians who love to have a punt to be able to continue to do so, but at the same time making sure that we have sensible and targeted measures to support gamblers who have faced and do face significant risks of harm. The register will be available to around one million consumers who currently have online wagering accounts.

Another very important feature of this particular register is that the sector, the gambling sector, has been very engaged and has made significant contributions to the development of this register to ensure that it is going to be workable for all Australians. To that end, I thank Responsible Wagering Australia and the wagering community for their very important interaction in developing this tool.