Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

Last June, the You win some, you lose more report of the parliamentary inquiry into online gambling unanimously recommended banning gambling ads on all platforms. Getting everyone to agree in this place is very rare, I can assure you. I pay tribute to the work of the late Peta Murphy, chair of the inquiry. Peta was an extraordinary leader who worked through her illness because she wanted to make real change and protect our kids. When the report came out, I think there was real hope that her sacrifice wouldn't be for nothing, but sadly the closer we get to an election the less courage is on display in Canberra. Clearly, free-to-air TV is too dependent on gambling ad revenue. If the government had voted for my antisiphoning amendments and ring-fenced sport for free-to-air channels, that would've seriously helped, but, no, you wouldn't do that.

But it's probably not just free-to-air TV that would be applying pressure here and knocking on those ministerial doors. The gambling companies forked out 600,000 bucks in political donations last year, including to Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland, who got 19,000 bucks for the last election. They sold our kids out for 620,000 bucks. That's what they're doing today. That's what our kids are worth. Thanks to the former senator and transparency warrior Rex Patrick, we know that the minister met with executives from the gambling companies 66 times in just six months. Of course, I'd bet that the AFL has been applying the pressure. They get 40 million or 50 million bucks a year from these gambling interests.

Australians lose more money gambling per capita than do those in any other country in the world—$25 billion, in fact. Since online gambling ads have come on the scene, our kids have become the biggest losers. Now our kids know the footy team odds better than the names of their football heroes. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, 19 per cent of young women and 25 per cent of young men started betting for the first time after seeing or hearing an ad on TV. Research also shows that high exposure to gambling ads increases the chances that these kids will develop gambling problems in the future.

I say to the government and to the free-to-air channels: this money is absolutely filthy, dirty, disgusting and disgraceful money and you should be ashamed of yourselves. You are absolutely unconscionable today. You've been selling our kids, who are priceless, for just 600,000 bucks. That's what you've done. You'd rather take those donations than worry about the future of our kids. You should not be sitting in this place; you should not be representatives in parliament—I say that right now. You are doing nothing but hurting our Australian kids and their families. First it was the poker machines, and now it's online gambling. It absolutely breaks my heart.

We have waited way too long for anything to be done about poker machines, and if we hadn't limited the ads they would still be running. They would be in charge. The government and the minister need to show more courage and put the Australian people and our kids first. (Time expired)