David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, at 8.30 in the morning, Senator Hanson-Young. Smirnoff ads were shown to 10-year-olds watching the Amazing Race at 6.30 pm. Beer ads were playing between performances from the Wiggles and Cinderella. How's that for a target audience! Truly a mind-blowing number of ads were shown to children watching LEGO Masters with their families. This includes ads for Gordon's gin, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Jack Daniel's and Vodka Cruiser. None of these ads would be allowed if you were watching through your aerial on your old-school television. But more and more Australians are watching through their smart TVs, with streaming and video on demand, and there are no rules. Hence, we're getting dozens and dozens of complaints from concerned parents who are tuning in to LEGO Masters and then having to sit through Gordon's gin, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Jack Daniel's and Vodka Cruiser ads with their eight-year-olds.

Why are we allowing this to happen? Why are we allowing this loophole to continue? This legislation does nothing to close that loophole, despite the government acknowledging that this is a problem. It's a problem, but we're not going to fix it in this legislation. There are simple amendments to actually force the industry, as they do with terrestrial television, to come up with a code and enforce it. What happens with all these complaints from dozens and dozens of parents is that they complain and they get a response saying, 'There are no grounds for your complaint because there are no rules because the parliament is currently failing your children.' We can fix this today during this guillotine.

I'm keen to also have a quick look at gambling. We also had a look at complaints made to Ad Standards and found an absolute clanger. If this doesn't make you think that the rules as they currently stand—and as they'll probably be after this guillotine, because the major parties don't seem to want to address this—need to change, I don't know what will. This was an ad that played during LEGO Masters via the 9Now app before 8.30 pm. So rest assured that there would have been a lot of young people watching. It was an ad for a pokies app literally named Hit it Rich! before 8.30 pm. This ad depicted a woman in a panda onesie hitting it rich and winning big on a pokies app. It even showed an inducement in the form of a welcome bonus. Then—this is the kicker—it failed to display a gambling warning after the ad.

So you're sitting there watching LEGO Masters with your kids. They love LEGO. They're always hassling you about the big LEGO sale here in the ACT or to get down to the toy shop and get the next set of LEGO that they can put together. You're being shown an ad for Hit it Rich! that says, 'Play some pokies on an app. You'll get an inducement,' and there's no warning that this is actually a gambling ad. What's that doing to our kids in a country where we're seeing more and more problem gambling, where we're already the biggest losers in the world? It's no surprise. Again, we could fix this today in this chamber, and I urge my Senate colleagues to do that. It's hard to argue that LEGOMasters is not a show for children. We've seen some advertisers try and argue that, but, at the very least, it's a show for families. Again, it's particularly egregious that it didn't even show the required warning, and this complaint—quite unbelievably, I think—was dismissed because there are no laws about gambling ads shown on free TV apps.

My question to the Senate is: is this within community standards? I've had so many people reach out to me who say that they feel it isn't—that they would like to see us deal with this. We have a bill that touches on it. I have an amendment that deals with it in a sensible way that's in line with what we do with terrestrial TV. If you're watching through an aerial, there's been a process where they come up with a code and then they enforce it. Everyone knows the standard. If you break it, you're held to account. If you want to stream TV through an app, it's a free-for-all, with no rules. There's no standing for people to make complaints and for them to be heard.

I fear that we will see this guillotine supported by the major parties, we'll see amendments that actually deal with this be voted down, and tomorrow night young people are going to be shown alcohol ads and gambling ads. It's hard to believe. This leads into the point that, over one year after the Murphy review, there has been no response on gambling. So I probably shouldn't be surprised that we don't want to close this loophole as a Senate—the majority of the Senate don't want to. I really express my serious concern about this guillotine and not dealing with this incredibly important part of this legislation.