Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on Senator Pocock's motion. As senators will recall, in June last year, the coalition introduced a bill to the Senate to ban gambling advertising during live sport, including one hour before and one hour after a game. We did so to respond to strong community concerns which were being raised across this country. I was very proud to introduce the coalition's bill and, as I said in this place just over a year ago, the time to act is now. That is why the coalition is taking strong steps to implement a ban on gambling advertising during live sport.

We know there is a problem. We are not going to wait for months, as the government has been signalling. We are not going to sit on our hands. Most of the crossbench, including Senator Pocock, backed our bill. However, Labor and the Greens opposed it—what a surprise—and our bill was defeated by a narrow margin. If the coalition bill to ban gambling advertising during live sport had been supported through parliament by Labor and the Greens, it would've been law by now.

The coalition bill also reflected the very strong commitment from Mr Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, who said in his budget reply speech last year:

In our country, footy time is family time, but the bombardment of betting ads takes the joy out of televised sports. Worse, they're changing the culture of our country in a bad way and normalising gambling at a young age.

More than a year has passed since the coalition sought to take action on the issue with our proposed legislation. We are still waiting for the government to work out its response to the You win some, you lose more report into online gambling and its impacts—in some cases, dreadful impacts—on those experiencing gambling harm. The government, like on so many other issues, is being typically slow to respond and, frankly, that is not good enough.

There has been a lot of media speculation about what is going to be in or out of the government's plans. In typical fashion, we see the government floating ideas, planting stories and then retreating when the heat gets too much. We don't know what the minister has in mind, other than that she is ducking and weaving and speaking non-stop out of both sides of her mouth in a way that, frankly, lets down the Australian people. What we do know for sure is that this government has slapped a gag order on industry stakeholders. That is the way this government does business, 'Let's pull out another non-disclosure agreement.' Frankly, that is not good for our parliament and that is not good for democracy.

So the coalition's position remains that we will wait to see what the government actually comes up with in a bill, if we see one at all, rather than jumping at various reports we are seeing in the media. The minister has got to do better than that. The communications minister, Ms Rowland, has got to do better than jumping at shadows, planting stories, tying up stakeholders with non-disclosure agreements and, frankly, kicking this can down the road, which is exactly what is happening. We will consider in good faith any bill that comes forward once we actually see it, if that does happen. Until we see any so-called bill and examine it in careful detail and consult across a range of stakeholders, we are not in a position to support this motion.

I do thank Senator Pocock for bringing on this motion and raising this very important issue, which I know is an incredibly important issue for so many Australians. I'm very proud of the work the coalition has done, and I would ask the minister and the Albanese government to get on with it. (Time expired)