Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

or RICE () (): I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No. 4) Bill 2022, and I want to thank my colleague Senator McKim for his important work on this legislation and in the Treasury portfolio more broadly.

We could think that the TLAB is dry and dusty, and is just about economics and Treasury. But it's absolutely at the core of the decisions that the government makes, and absolutely core to the choices the government makes. And we want to see this government do more, using the powers and levers that it has to work towards economic justice. Sadly, although this government talks about not leaving people behind and talks about achieving justice, we have seen this government unwilling to take action on a whole range of fronts. That includes action on rent freezes, for example, and on other fronts.

I'm speaking on this bill because of the intersection of this TLAB with online gambling. I also want to thank Mr Wilkie from the other place for the work that he has done on this issue. The amendment I'm moving today is essentially the amendment that Mr Wilkie moved in the House, which would ensure that the digital games tax offset is not available to games that include a digital container of randomised virtual items that can be obtained, commonly known as a loot box. Loot boxes in online games set up someone, often at a very early age, to normalise gambling—that this is what you do; it is just part of life that you spend money on gambling and you lose money. We know that gambling is deliberately constructed for people to lose money. It is deliberately constructed so that the person loses out and the house always wins.

This amendment would address this issue at the very least. It is the very smallest of actions that we could take to address the problems of gambling harm in this country. At the very least we should not be facilitating and supporting games that include loot boxes, which as I said, are just normalising gambling. We know that we need to do more to address loot boxes.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that 'loot box engagement, including viewing, opening and especially purchasing, was associated with problem gambling and internet gaming disorder'. In 2018 my colleague Senator Steele-John chaired an inquiry into gaming microtransactions for chance based items, and the first recommendation from that committee was that the government undertake a comprehensive review of loot boxes in video games. Sadly, it's a recommendation that the former government didn't take up. We're hoping that maybe this government might consider it. But, even without taking up that recommendation to do a comprehensive review, the very least you could be doing is making sure that this digital tax offset isn't available to games that include loot boxes.

Of course, when it comes to problem gambling and the harm form gambling, there's a lot more that needs to be done. The minister was receiving donations from the gambling lobby. Although we now have a commitment from the minister that she is not going to receive further donations from the gambling lobby, we haven't seen a commitment from the government to take the comprehensive action that could be taken and that is needed to address gambling harm.

The Greens want to see real action on gambling. The amendment that I'm going to be moving to this bill in the committee stage is one action. Another action we want to see is a national independent gambling regulator to take meaningful action and ensure there's a coordinated approach to tackling gambling harm so that companies can't exploit differences in frameworks between jurisdictions. We want to see the government regulate online gambling to reduce gambling harms, with mandatory precommitment and a universal exclusion scheme across all platforms. We want to see a ban on all gambling advertising, including television, radio and online. We want to see regulation—not just removing a tax offset—of gambling in videogames, and the prohibition of loot boxes being accessible by people under 18. We want to see the end of the grip of the gambling industry on politics, by banning political donations from the gambling industry and restricting politicians and public servants from working for the gambling industry.

This change is possible. There's nothing impossible in what we're pushing for. It is the government's choice. It's the Labor government's choice as to whether they take these actions—whether they choose to side with the gambling companies, who are making billions of dollars, or side with community members, who want to see gambling harm reduced and family members saved from the dangers of gambling.