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

The coalition have introduced the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements During Live Sport) Bill because we believe the time has come to draw a line in the sand and put an end to gambling advertisements during live sport. Footy time is family time, and family time is precious—too precious to have it swamped by a rising tide of gambling ads. Watching and listening to live sport is a great Australian tradition, and we on this side of the chamber want to preserve that. The bombardment of betting ads takes joy away from that tradition. We know that because that's exactly what the community are telling us. We are listening and we are responding with this bill.

The community are over this. We in the coalition are over this. As representatives of our communities we are beholden to act on their behalf. The time to act is now. That is why the coalition are taking strong steps to implement a ban on gambling advertising during live sport. We know that 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.

The Prime Minister says he finds the ads annoying. He's probably a bit annoyed too that the coalition are once again providing leadership on this issue. We've seen reporting that several government sources have said that, while no decisions have yet been taken, the Leader of the Opposition's move has wrong-footed them. Frankly, it doesn't matter whose idea it was, a good policy is a good policy and should be supported. It would be petulant to quibble over whose idea it was first. It would be even more disappointing if this bill were not supported today in this chamber because of petty politics.

Labor is hiding behind the parliamentary inquiry, which it says is due to hand down its report in the middle of the year. One suspects they'll try to rush it out sooner, given they've been left behind on this issue. But there is nothing stopping the government supporting this bill now today. The community want it and they expect their representatives to act. This is the second set of reforms from the coalition to limit the running of gambling advertisements during live sport. In 2018, the coalition government passed a significant body of reforms in this area, limiting when and where gambling ads could be placed during live sport. We have acted before and we are taking strong action again.

The actions set out in this bill are straightforward. They require minor amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. The changes would require industry codes of practice to be updated to incorporate the ban. There are industry codes which apply to the different sectors within the media, including for commercial television, commercial radio and subscription broadcast television. Online content is regulated separately, and the changes in this bill ensure that live streaming is also captured by the gambling advertising ban. Our bill allows for a transition period for the change. The minister would be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the industry transitions over to the new regime. The ban would commence one hour before the scheduled start of a match and end one hour after its conclusion. It would apply to television, radio broadcasting and live streaming of sporting events. This bill makes no changes to the existing exemptions on gambling advertising which apply to the broadcasting or live streaming of horse racing or other racing codes or to the advertisements or promotions for government lotteries, lotto, Keno or contests.

In conclusion, we reiterate that footy time is family time. The coalition believes that it is wrong in principle that children are subjected to gambling advertising when they just want to enjoy a sporting event with their families. This bill would put an end to that. I urge all senators to support this important legislation.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is committed to ensuring online gambling takes place within a robust legislative framework with strong consumer protections. Like many Australians, we are concerned about the extent of gambling ads and their impact, and it is one of the key reasons why we established the House of Representatives inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm to look at these very matters. The government awaits the recommendations from the House of Representatives inquiry, which is due to report in the coming weeks, as its recommendations will underpin the government's consideration of what further reforms are required to reduce gambling harms, including to the rules around gambling advertising.

The committee adopted an inquiry into online gambling and its impact on problem gambling on 15 September 2022, following a referral from the Minister for Social Services, the Hon. Amanda Rishworth MP. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs has inquired into and will report on online gambling and its impact on those experiencing gambling harm. The House of Reps inquiry had regard to:

• the effectiveness of existing consumer protections aimed at reducing online gambling harm

• how to better target programs to address online gambling harm to reduce the potential exploitation of at-risk people, and protect individuals, families and communities

• the effectiveness of current counselling and support services to address online gambling harm

• the quality of and access to protective online gambling education programs

• the impact of current regulatory and licensing regimes for online gambling on the effectiveness of harm minimisation and consumer protection efforts

• the appropriateness of the definition of 'gambling service' in the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth), and whether it should be amended to capture additional gambling-like activities such as simulated gambling in video games (e.g. 'loot boxes' and social casino games)

• the appropriateness of current gambling regulations in light of emerging technologies, payment options and products

• the effectiveness of protections against illegal online gambling services, including casino style gambling such as online blackjack and slot machines

• the effectiveness of current gambling advertising restrictions on limiting children's exposure to gambling products and services (e.g. promotion of betting odds during live sport broadcasts), including consideration of the impact of advertising through social media, sponsorship or branding from online licenced gambling operators, and

• any other related matters.

I would like to acknowledge the advocacy on these issues by many across the parliament, and I would also like to acknowledge the significant and ongoing work of the House committee looking into online gambling harms, led by Peta Murphy MP. In recent months, the chair, Peta Murphy, has held inquiries questioning Sportsbet, Tabcorp and Entain—operator of the brands Ladbrokes and Neds—and the peak industry body Responsible Wagering Australia about whether industry is doing enough to limit the harm of online gambling in the Australian community. In doing so, the chair has stated:

The AFL and NRL are major beneficiaries of sports betting, including through sponsorship and advertising, and receiving a proportion of each bet placed on their games. The Committee is interested in hearing how this aligns with the promotion of their codes as family-friendly and socially responsible organisations.

She also said that, when we do act in this area, we want to ensure our approach is comprehensive. Further, the committee has heard from researchers and state and territory governments about the effectiveness of current online gambling harm minimisation measures and new approaches that may be necessary to reduce harm. Importantly, we need to consider the multiple channels through which advertising is delivered, which includes not only television, radio and live streaming but also social media, where these advertisements are sometimes most pervasive, along with outdoor advertising and branding. In the meantime, the minister has been working with her department to prepare for the release of the report and intends to respond to it quickly.

It is safe to say that the coalition bill, from the government's point of view, is incomplete. It is only focused on radio, TV and live streaming and is limited to live sport. A harm minimisation approach needs to consider the multiple channels and situations through which advertising is delivered in this day and age, in particular social media. Any reform in this area must also be evidence based. These issues are being considered by the committee and that is why we, the Albanese Labor government, will await the House of Representatives inquiry's final report and the full suite of evidence it provides before proposing changes.

The only reason we have any restrictions on gambling ads during live sport is that Labor acted when we were last in government and called for further restrictions while in opposition. The fact is that the Liberal-National coalition are the architects of the current arrangements—arrangements that they now claim they want to change—and the architects of restrictions which have now been proven to be inadequate. Research by the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, found that there was a 50 per cent increase in the total volume of gambling spots on television and radio following the introduction of the last set of gambling ad restrictions in 2018. Despite the fact that these figures from ACMA were released in 2019 and showed a 50 per cent increase in the volume of gaming spots on TV and radio, the coalition made no attempt to rectify the situation. They brought in the current gambling advertising rules and the commercial broadcasting tax, both of which were part of a broader deal struck with media companies that had little to do with harm minimisation. They took far too long to implement the national consumer protection framework, and, four years after the framework was established, only six of the 10 important measures had actually been implemented. They sat on their hands when it came to responding to reviews such as the 2020 Stevens review, which recommended addressing the regulation of gambling in computer games, and the 2019 parliamentary joint inquiry, which recommended banning credit cards for online gambling. Those opposite did too little too late on these issues.

Within one year of government, the Albanese government has already taken a range of important steps to reduce gambling harms. It is the Albanese government that established an inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm. This is the government that announced that it would strengthen classification of gambling-like features in videogames, including loot boxes and simulated casino games, to protect children from exposure to harms. This is the government that has committed to legislate to ban credit cards for online gambling. This is the government that brought together state and territory ministers for the first time since 2017 to discuss what comes next to address gambling harms. And this is the government that will launch the National Self-Exclusion Register, BetStop. BetStop is the final element of the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering. Two other elements consist of gambling messaging and wagering staff training in March of this year.

In light of the opposition leader's recent interest in addressing gambling harm, we look forward to the opposition's support as we progress towards reform in this area. We understand that reform to gambling advertising is important to the community. We will continue to progress our harm minimisation agenda to protect Australians who are vulnerable to gambling harms. So, while I commend Senator Henderson for this bill, the government will not be supporting it here today. In saying so, I hope Senator Henderson throws her support behind any future proposed changes to online gambling to protect those experiencing gambling harm.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements During Live Sport) Bill 2023, and, in doing so, I welcome the opposition joining the calls for more restrictions and a better framework for gambling and the management of gambling in this country. Let me be really clear: gambling is insidious. It ruins lives. It ruins sport. And it should have no place on our television screens or on our children's devices. Let's be frank here: the entire business model of the gambling industry is to make profit out of people's addiction and suffering. We're a modern country. We know the health impacts. We know the mental health impacts. We know the social impacts. Review after review after review and inquiry after inquiry after inquiry have shown what it is that parliaments, politicians, ministers and governments need to do. We've got to ban all advertising of gambling. We should be cleaning up the insidious addiction pushed by pokie machines. We should be restricting and stopping the insidious pushing online of gambling into our children's hands as they are on their phones or their iPads. Gambling ruins lives, and it ruins sport. Something has to be done.

Seven in 10 Australians, from recent polling, want gambling ads banned from all television—not just from an hour before to an hour after sport; they don't want it at all. Regular Australians know that the gambling industry has had it too good for too long, making profits off the back of people's suffering, addiction and mental health, and off the innocence of children. Why, in 2023, are we still debating this issue? It's because of the political clout and influence that the gambling industry holds over both major parties in this country—election donations, special dinners, mates rates, the sliding doors for advisers from the office of one minister or shadow minister into the gambling industry and back again. If you want to know why we have a gambling crisis in this country, it's because the gambling industry has had its foot on the throat of politicians for decades. It's time we stood up and said, 'Enough.'

This bill is a very, very modest bill. We need to do more than this—much more. What I am incredibly impressed with is that regular Australians know that. Whether this bill passes or not, they will know that this is not enough. Regular Australians have seen their friends, their families, their loved ones and their work colleagues suffer at the hands of this bottom-feeding industry, which is desperate for profit at any expense and is all about sucking money out of the pockets of people who don't actually have it to give. If we're going to ban advertising on broadcast, we need to be really clear that we're not going to allow it to just continue to be pushed online. It's important that we remove gambling ads from live sport, but they also need to be removed from all hours that children are watching television or accessing entertainment and content on their devices. I call on the government to do more. We've heard from the minister today that the government wants to do this and wants to do that, saying, 'We'll get to this.' Move faster. Lift your game.

Government have told us that they're waiting for the report from the House of Representatives committee. I look forward to seeing that report too, but—I can tell you what—it's going to say the same things that every report and inquiry has said for the last two decades. It's not a policy response we are missing; it is the political will to stare down this insidious industry and say, 'Enough.' It's the political will to turn their backs on their gambling industry mates. It's to have the political will to say, 'No, we will not take any more gambling donations to help us get elected.' That is what we need from either side today—not a tinkering around the edges and not pushing gambling ads from one small part of television broadcasting into the rest of broadcasting or online. We need the political will to pull the rug out from underneath the gambling industry and say enough. Stop taking our children for fools and feeding off their innocence, because that's what this industry is doing. They are feeding off the innocence of children, they are ruining lives and they're ruining sport.

The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation reported that 148 gambling ads were broadcast between 6 pm and 8.30 pm every week night on free-to-air television. They also found that, on average, four times more gambling ads were played during sport than were played during non-sport. Children and young people were therefore considerably more exposed to gambling advertising when watching sport. When do children sit down with their families in front of the television to enjoy some family time? We increasingly know it is when their favourite team is playing.

I understand the reason the opposition have brought this bill as it is, with this focus. But if we only do this, we risk pushing this insidious cowboy industry to target children even more in the hours when they are not with their parents, when they're not sitting down with family—when there isn't a parental filter. And that, I fear, will drive even more addiction and harm. We need a comprehensive response to this, and we know what the solutions are.

We have the ludicrous situation where hundreds of millions of dollars is spent across this country responding to the health, the mental health and the social crisis driven by gambling addiction. Yet at the same time the public broadcaster SBS is allowed to run gambling ads on television between shows—a public broadcaster! The contradictions, the twisting of facts and the convenience of policy on this issue are just revolting. We need consistency. If we shouldn't be showing ads for gambling during the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide showdown then we shouldn't be showing ads that promote gambling at any time on a public broadcaster. We need consistency across the board here.

I call on the minister today—we've heard the promises that you'll do this, you'll do that, you'll wait for this report—I want action and I want concrete evidence that you will act, and so do the Australian people. They're sick and tired of promises from politicians that someone will do something about the insidiousness of gambling and the harm and the suffering. Then it all gets too hard. The gambling lobby come knocking on the doors of ministers and shadow ministers, and on the doors of backbenchers in the party room, saying: 'If you do this we won't be able to donate to that campaign. Don't you remember when you came to that dinner?' Stare these buggers down! They have no place—

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson-Young, a reminder to stick to parliamentary language, please.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I apologise, Acting Deputy President. This is an industry that feeds off the suffering of families and the innocence of children. It is disgusting. Hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money is spent cleaning up the mess that this industry makes, while pocketing the profits. They never get taken on because every time a political leader stands up and says they are going to take on the gambling lobby, they are threatened, the political campaign starts and politicians go weak at the knees.

Yes, let's have a good debate about what we're going to do to stop the advertising of gambling on our television screens, on our devices, in our lounge rooms and in our children's bedrooms. I don't want to hear any more promises that we're going to get here or do this. I want to see legislation, and I want to see it now. The government is on notice on this. This bill is going to be debated for the next few days, I understand, so come out and tell us what you're going to do. Act—actions are much more important than words right now. We have heard the promises, election after election after election, and we have seen what happens. We have seen both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party make these promises and then get rolled by their political donors in the gambling industry.

Is it any wonder why Sportsbet wanted to take the Minister for Communications, who is in charge of this regulation, to dinner—is it any wonder? We all know what a sick joke that was. Show us that it made no difference to you. Show us that you actually care about this issue and will do the right thing. I commend the opposition for bringing the debate to the chamber today because it is one that we have to have. But it can't just be political grandstanding; we actually need the political will to stop this industry in its tracks.

Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The need to act is now. This bill, the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements During Live Sport) Bill 2023, is a start, and I hope the Greens will support it. A look at gambling statistics paints this frightening picture, but it is not a picture: there are real people, real lives, that are being affected. Australians have the largest per capita gambling losses in the world. It is everywhere and, conveniently, the gambling sector will come to you with 24/7 and mobile access, and it is there when you are watching your favourite game. TV advertising is particularly effective in grabbing the attention of young people. One report found one in five young women, 19 per cent, and one in seven young men, 15 per cent, started betting for the first time after seeing or hearing an ad on television.

Fellow South Australian Senator Hanson-Young raised important reasons to act now for my own home state. In South Australia, 40,000 locals engage in high- or moderate-risk gambling each year. That is enough people to fill the Adelaide Oval. Sixty-five per cent of South Australian adults gamble. In the 2021 financial year alone, the loss was a record $1.52 billion. The cost is a whopping $1,052 for every single South Australian adult every single year.

When gambling is a problem, it is because you have gambled more than you can afford, prioritised gambling over essentials or become secretive about your gambling to varying extents. It can be with devastating financial, human and social costs. The incidence of problem gambling and addiction is trending in completely the wrong direction.

I support the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements During Live Sport) Bill 2023 because it is a prevention approach to reduce exposure to risk. It places a ban on all gambling advertising during live sporting events, and it would begin one hour before the start of the match and finish one hour after the end of the match. It would apply to television, radio and live streaming. It's a start. It makes sure that sports enthusiasts who simply want to watch the game are not exposed to gambling. It protects children from being directly and indirectly exposed to gambling. Innocent and vulnerable children will benefit from this bill. Parents, grandparents and carers will benefit from this bill. This is about less exposure to temptation for gamblers and for everyone. Risky gambling affects debt; affects the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, children, and relationships; reduces performance at work and study; and causes cultural harm and even criminal activity.

Problem gambling is increasingly an addiction of the South Australian government. It secured a $120 million revenue windfall in 2020-21 from gambling. It is, of course, most likely that other states and territories are also reaping massive revenue windfalls. Alarmingly, only three per cent of South Australian gamblers seek help for gambling harm, and, when they do, it's most often when they've reached crisis point.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies alerts us to the association between child abuse and an increased risk of gambling problems in adulthood, according to a new systematic review published recently in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect. The association between child abuse and an increased risk of gambling problems in adulthood was significant for multiple forms of maltreatment, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and psychological maltreatment. The legislation will help protect our children. Also, evidence, though limited, regarding the extent to which adult problem gamblers are at risk of maltreating their children showed associations between problem gambling and the physical abuse of children.

Gambling rates are much higher among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples than in the wider Australian population, and we know their passion for sport means they are also vulnerable.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said in his budget reply in May that we need to have this bill passed. The research tells us we must act on this bill. The ban would build on previous changes legislated by the former coalition government in 2018 to reduce the level of gambling advertising during sporting events. This necessarily goes further. Only last year, the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs began an inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm. In a submission to that inquiry, South Australia's Liquor and Gambling Commissioner, Dini Soulio, cited studies that indicate that exposure to gambling advertising contributes to the normalisation of gambling as complementary to the enjoyment of sport. That shouldn't be true. It is associated with an increase in gambling behaviour, including risky gambling behaviour, and it impacts children's perceptions and future intentions regarding gambling.

Now I'd like to alert you to advertising spend. Audience insights, data and analytics by Nielsen research shows the gambling industry spent $287 million on advertising in Australia in 2021, not including in-stadium advertising or sponsorships—so they spend much more. The opportunity to reach every single Australian is endless, through smartphones, apps, social media, traditional broadcasters and digital streaming outlets. There's no escape. We need to make sure there is.

For prime-time family viewing spots, Nielsen research found that an average of 148 gambling ads were broadcast on free-to-air TV between six and 8.30 every night—that's 148 gambling ads children could be exposed to. You only have to turn on an AFL football match to watch the Crows or Port Adelaide after 8.30 pm, and, at every opportunity, there will be a gambling advertisement. In his federal government inquiry submission, the South Australian liquor and gambling commissioner highlighted:

… Australian children aged between 8 -16 years found they could recall gambling advertising (for sports betting) in detail, had learnt how to place a bet, and could recall betting specific technical language.

I'm talking about children between eight and 16 years of age. I tested this. One of my own staff asked her son, a 14-year-old teen, what he knew. To her surprise, and to ours, even with that evidence, yes, he was able to rattle off a long list of gambling sites and advertising slogans without hesitation—he didn't miss a beat. There are also YouTube channels sponsored by gambling organisations that our children watch, and ads are streamed on digital platforms during television news. We cannot let this continue. Responsible parents who supervise their children cannot protect them alone. Parents and carers who are struggling need our help. Organisations that work to support problem gamblers need us to do the prevention work to slow the growing volume of problem gamblers that they need to help to rebuild their lives. All of them need our help. They need this legislation.

As was shown in a survey of 2,300 South Australian adults by researchers from CQUniversity in 2021, most adults, 92 per cent, believe it is important to speak to children about the risks involved in sports betting, but only one in five adults—that's 20 per cent—have actually done so. Evidence is important, but it's not needed to act here. We already have it. Delay in acting will delay the sector change and delay change for those that need it most. In talking directly to parents in South Australia since coming into this place, I know they would support this, and probably every single one of us in this place knows that, too. A three-year study from La Trobe University found that 78 per cent of the 50,000 respondents felt they should be able to watch sports on TV with no gambling ads. Families shouldn't have to think twice about turning on the television and watching tennis or any other sport because they worry about the exposure of their children to gambling. Instead, they should be focused on their favourite players, barracking for their team and watching the play, the fun stuff, as Senator Hanson-Young said, the family stuff.

Labor has done very little to clamp down on the gambling sector since its election other than an inquiry into online gambling and its impacts. Parents and carers will want this, and vulnerable children will benefit from it. I encourage those concerned about gambling to seek help and for the Senate to support this bill. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that I went to Alice Springs, my home town. It was really sad to watch the number of people sitting around in Alice Springs gambling, and they'd been there all day. The kids were hanging around their parents, watching the gambling. Even worse, I took a walk through the casino, where there are heaps and heaps of photographs of people enjoying having a bit of a flutter, and a walk through the casino in Alice Springs shows you, without needing to be branded stereotyping people, many of those people can't afford to gamble that much and weren't working that day because they were spending welfare on gambling.

You only have to go to my home state and look at what has happened in Ceduna. I can't wait to see the statistics that show the increase in gambling with the abolition of the cashless debit card. I will certainly be continuing to look for those statistics. But, again, I don't need the evidence of another report to say, 'Act now.' You just need to listen, you just need to read, you just need to ask and you just need to get on with it. On that basis, there is no need to delay it. We need to act now. Shame on the Albanese government for not supporting this right now.

Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love sport. Like many Australians, I love watching a good match of just about anything. But being a senator from Victoria I particularly like AFL. Perhaps a little-known fact is that in a previous life I served on the board of the MCG Trust for Australia's best sporting stadium. Unusually though for a Victorian I don't have an AFL team. I always just like supporting the winner!

Along with my interest in sport, I'm also a proud member of the group Parliamentary Friends of Gambling Harm Reduction. My love of sport and my conviction about reducing the harm that comes from gambling means I'm particularly interested in Senator's Henderson's private senator's bill and what it seeks to do or, perhaps more accurately, what it doesn't do. On the face of it, Senator Henderson's bill sounds like a pretty good thing from a gambling harm reduction point of view. The bill seeks to take a stand on all gambling advertisements during live sporting events from one hour before each sporting event to one hour after its conclusion. I'd wager that this sounds pretty good to the average punter. I think that is what Senator Henderson and the Liberal Party are trying to achieve with this bill—they are trying to look as though they are doing something on gambling harm reduction by introducing this bill. They are seeking to address the very rightly placed community concern about the impact of gambling advertising on young people, children and the vulnerable because they want to seem like they care, but the truth is that how this bill proposes to deal with the issue of gambling advertising in Australia is like looking at a tapestry through a drinking straw.

The broadcast of live sporting events does not represent other channels through which gambling advertising is proliferated, such as social media and through sponsorship and branding, including on sporting uniforms and merchandise and at outdoor advertising at sporting events and other public places. Senator Henderson's bill does very little to address the issues at hand because its remit is so small. That, in essence, is why the government does not support this bill.

As the communications minister has said publicly, the status quo on gambling advertising isn't good enough. Australians, particularly young Australians, are being bombarded by gambling advertising more frequently, particularly during sporting matches. Betting companies are seeking to make gambling synonymous with the Australian experience of live sport and are using Australia's proud sporting culture as a clever and manipulative way of justifying and minimising what is in fact a harmful and pervasive problem. The normalisation of the slogan 'Sportsbet's same-day multis', ringing in our ears every time live sport is playing, is the result of a near seamless integration of gambling with sport. I have to admit I don't know what a same-day multi even is!

As far as that integration of sport and gambling goes, this bill works to make a bit of a difference. But the fact is that a whole range of other channels exist to advertise gambling during sporting events and also when there are no events on. Gambling advertising on social media is pervasive. Online advertising, which casually frames gambling as if it were an exciting game and nothing more, is having the effect of putting casinos on our phones. There are concerning similarities between betting companies targeting children to set them up for developing gambling habits and the tobacco industry targeting young people to produce another generation of nicotine addicts. A similar case can be mounted for their targeting of the poor and the vulnerable. This cannot be a good thing, because the fact is that most people lose. Frankly, the terms and conditions of gambling apps are rigged against everyone really winning big and certainly are rigged against anyone winning consistently. As the well-known saying goes, the house always wins—eventually.

The research shows that this move from the opposition won't solve the problem of gambling. It will just push the advertising from one timeslot to another, when children are particularly targeted. In fact, when you look at the data you see that the last round of changes to the regulatory framework, which the now opposition in 2018 labelled as 'reforms', has actually increased the volume of gambling spots on TV and radio. The effect of the coalition's reforms has been to make gambling advertising more pervasive during times when children are more likely to be consuming media, when movies and comedy are scheduled.

The effect of this massive net increase in gambling advertising over the last few years has been revealed in some concerning research released from the Institute of Family Studies, which has already been referred to. It suggests that, when people were exposed to wagering advertising, 21 per cent were prompted to start betting for the first time, 28 per cent tried a new form of betting, 29 per cent said they placed bets on impulse and a third of people increased their betting. It also found that three in four Australians gambled at least once during the past 12 months and, of those, almost half were classified as being at some risk of harm from wagering. These are pretty devastating statistics in my view. Those numbers suggest to me that, whatever we have been doing and whatever it was the coalition did in 2018, have failed Australians in terms of their economic and social wellbeing. As gambling has become more accessible and more intensely advertised, the harms associated with gambling have also increased.

When Labor came to government we committed to address this problem and look at ways to better reduce gambling harm. A parliamentary committee chaired by the member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy, is underway and is due to report its findings soon. I have been following the committee with interest. The videos Peta Murphy has posted on Twitter of her relentless questioning of executives of large betting companies have been particularly informative and have contributed to exposing the disingenuous practices of those companies and exposing further the problems that surround gambling and gambling advertising in Australia.

That's why we need the committee process. It has looked not just at the small remit of this bill we are debating today but at the whole range of channels through which gambling advertising is consumed, both in a sporting context and elsewhere. It has also looked at other jurisdictions' actions to reduce harm in gambling advertising across physical platforms as well as in broadcasts and online. There are good models in Europe and other parts of the world that are worth looking at and which, of course, go a lot further and are a lot more thoughtful than what Senator Henderson has punted up here today.

Of course it's also worth pointing out that, after a decade of inaction and the coalition ignoring warnings of the harm being caused by the exploding online gambling industry, Labor has already begun to act. The Albanese government is strengthening classification of gambling-like features in video games, including loot boxes and simulated casino games, to help protect children from exposure to harmful gambling practices and developing concerning gambling habits.

The government has also committed to ban credit cards for online gambling. This is a sound policy that means people cannot spend money they don't have on online gambling platforms. It makes sense to me that, if you are gambling with credit, you likely shouldn't be gambling at all. I've heard some horror stories of Australians getting into serious trouble and serious debt by gambling with credit cards. This shouldn't be allowed to continue.

The government will also launch a national self-exclusion register known as BetStop. BetStop will allow Australians to actively exclude themselves from all online wagering and betting services in a single step for a minimum of three months and up to a lifetime. This is a huge reform which will allow Australians who recognise they have a problem with online gambling to take positive and tangible steps in protecting themselves from further gambling harm.

Ultimately this bill goes some of the way to reform the problems Australia faces with gambling advertising, but, given how pervasive and harmful the problems are which gambling advertising triggers, it doesn't do enough. Television and radio advertisements during sporting matches are only one element of a much larger issue of gambling advertising. The world has changed, and online advertising on social media and on our phones has to be seriously looked at, along with traditional advertising practices on TV and radio, and advertising on merchandising, in print and also in stadiums.

The government is committed to addressing this problem and the harm it causes. I know that the minister intends to move our own comprehensive reforms after the House inquiry into these issues reports back to parliament in a few weeks time. This strategy is formed by evidence, actually seeks to address the problem and will do more to protect Australians from gambling harm than Senator Henderson's piecemeal bill. The government wants to get gambling harm reduction right rather than support a knee-jerk reaction, which is why the government is not supporting the bill.

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

I'd like to thank Senator Henderson and the opposition for bringing this bill forward. Any constructive attempt to deal with gambling harm is to be welcomed, and any debate in this place that emphasises and elevates the issue of gambling harm is to be welcomed, because gambling causes harm. Gambling destroys lives, and gambling destroys families. The fact that gambling has been normalised in our society is just insidious.

There's a reason as to why gambling has been normalised in our society; it's because some of the most powerful people in our country, some of the biggest corporations, are making a huge amount of money from it. And those people are very influential, politically. The level of gambling donations to both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party is extraordinary. State governments are addicted to money from poker machines, and other governments are addicted to revenue from gambling. It's why we have not seen action on gambling.

Anybody with an ounce of sense looking at the absolute escalation of gambling and gambling harm that has been occurring in Australia would see that there's a very sensible way forward, and that's to actually acknowledge that gambling causes harm and that gambling needs to be managed on a harm minimisation basis. If we had governments doing that, there would be a whole suite of measures that would be brought into play to manage gambling, with a harm minimisation approach.

The bill that we are discussing today is just one small thing that could be done. It is rather ironic to hear the people from the opposition now speaking out about the harms of gambling. It's almost as if they weren't in government for the last nine years. There was so much that could have been done by the previous government that wasn't done. It's also extraordinary to hear the government talking about the things that they are doing—'Yes, we're going to be doing this'—knowing how much they have been dragging their feet. They're not treating this with the urgency that is required.

Senator White just talked about BetStop. How long is it taking for BetStop to be introduced? It is extraordinary. Questions were asked about it at estimates and it is very much on the backburner. The rollout is happening extraordinarily slowly. We have seen the conflicts of interest from this government—just like previous governments—because of the donations that they accept from gambling companies, how they are dragging their feet in taking action. The minister meeting and taking donations from gambling companies is just the most obvious example of that in recent times.

We need to be managing gambling with a harm minimisation approach. We need to be taking action because, as I said, gambling is destroying lives and the community knows this. The community knows that we need to be taking action on gambling advertisements. We need to be banning all gambling advertisements, just like, with a harm minimisation approach, we banned advertising for cigarettes decades ago because we knew that advertising and normalising those cigarettes was doing harm and encouraging people to smoke. That is what is going on with gambling advertising, and it is causing a huge amount of harm.

I do, however, think that's it good that we have—and I congratulate—the House of Representatives inquiry into online gambling and reducing gambling harm, which is happening at the moment. I really want to thank the people who have taken the time to be putting submissions into this inquiry, particularly the Alliance for Gambling Reform for their powerful submission to the House of Representatives inquiry. They have done some excellent work in collecting information about what the impacts of gambling advertising and gambling are. It's really powerful to read their submissions and to hear the stories, of people who have experienced gambling harm, which were collected in their submissions.

What's really important in this debate is to recognise the lives that are being damaged. From my time as a local councillor, when we were having to deal with planning applications for poker machine venues and were hearing the stories from local residents who were having their lives destroyed by having a pokie venue on every corner, the thing that really struck home was that gambling has real-life impacts. Gambling advertising and that insidious normalisation of gambling has real-life impacts. I want to share with you some of the stories that the Alliance for Gambling Reform shared in their submission.

The first story is from Mark in Victoria. He says, 'I have been exposed to some form of betting all my life, in one way or another; however, the betting problem became more prevalent from the mid-nineties onwards. Looking back, it probably became a serious problem from 2006 onwards, but it was not a serious financial issue until I lost my main source of income in November 2012.

'The constant advertising of betting agencies and easy access to credit cards saw me accumulate a large debt, which I did not have the ability to repay, and ended up with me stealing money from my employer to feed my addiction. It was not until I was sentenced to three years in jail that the reality hit me. I have lost a reputation which took me 40 years to build, lost my home of 20 years, lost my 23-year marriage and am currently classified as secondary homeless.'

Mark says, 'From my experience, I feel there are two main ways of reducing the impact that gambling is having on society. First, we need to get the banks to put a block on transfer of funds from credit cards to betting agencies. This includes using credit cards at poker machine venues. Secondly, I feel we need to get government approval to speak to 15- and 16-year-olds at school and warn them of the dangers of becoming addicted to gambling and the consequences they face if they go down that path. Yes, we can talk to people who are already struggling with this disease, but I feel it is more important to help not get started in the first place.'

Then he says, 'I applied for my working-with-children card to be renewed and, if successful, would be only too pleased to be involved with educating the teenagers of today.' These are really constructive suggestions from Mark, and they go to the need to be stopping the harm from happening in the first place.

Just like nicotine addiction through smoking, the recognition that we need to stop young people taking up a smoking habit leads to all of the measures that are being put in place to stop that addiction occurring—similarly, with gambling. If you have the constant barrage of gambling advertisements, it is just encouraging young people—and older people—to see gambling as something that is a normal part of life and leads to their addiction.

Another story is from Jacob in New South Wales. He says, 'I am 34 -years old and I have suffered from a sports gambling addiction for 15 years. Since quitting gambling in 2017, I have shared my story to raise awareness around gambling harm. Whilst this is never easy and involved a huge amount of bravery and vulnerability, I did this because I believed it needed to be done. My gambling addiction crept up on me, and it was a slow and gradual demise. I believe this can happen to anybody. Not only did gambling impact me financially but it also impacted me in many other ways. Relationships with partners, family and friends all suffered.

'My working career suffered because I often gambled whilst I was at work. Gambling became my safety blanket, so any troubles in my life were ignored, and gambling at the time seemed to solve those issues. But, of course, they were only making them worse. Most importantly, gambling made me become a truly horrible version of myself. Through recovery, I have learnt so much about myself: what are my strengths, weaknesses, best traits. When I gambled, I was selfish, grumpy, shut off, unhappy. I didn't know who I was as a person. Gambling halted both my personal growth and my career growth without even realising.

'I tried to stop gambling multiple times. Sometimes I would go weeks, even months. There were several times when I was trying to stop when gambling companies would email or SMS, enticing me to bonus bets if I deposited again with them. I also remember having a dedicated VIP manager who would often contact me with bonus bet deals and offers if I deposited a certain amount with them that weekend.

'At the time I wasn't aware how I can now look back and see how wrong this is. This is still going on today. It makes me feel sick thinking about it. The amount of gambling-related advertisements in Australia is not only worrying but sickening. Whilst the ads will not entice me to ever gamble again, they do normalise gambling and provide a constant reminder of gambling. The frequency needs to be reduced and there need to be restrictions on when ads can be aired. Exposing families with young kids to gambling during the six o'clock news or The Bachelor is wrong. There needs to be further education for children around the harm that gambling can cause. We have a lot of work to do. Gambling is ingrained in Australian culture, and there needs to be work done to ensure that our younger generations aren't falling into the same trap that I and many others do.'

I have another story that I don't think I'm going to have time to share with you today, but it's very clear that the impact that gambling is causing, the harm it is causing across this country, is real and it is destroying people.

What would it mean to be managing gambling, to actually be doing something to address that culture of gambling in Australia? As I said, the first thing we need to do is to acknowledge that gambling is causing harm, that gambling is addictive and that, as a harm, it needs to be managed under a harm minimisation approach. I have asked the Department of Health and Aged Care whether they are doing anything looking at gambling as a health issue, and the response has been absolutely blank stares. Clearly, from governments of both sides, this basic way forward, of looking at gambling as a harm and something to be managed using a harm minimisation approach, is not occurring.

There is a lot that we could be doing. What's being proposed in this bill, to limit gambling advertising, is a start. The Greens' position is that we should be banning all gambling advertising, including on TV, on radio and online—everywhere. Particularly, however, we need to be taking a really comprehensive approach. We need a national independent gambling regulator who will take meaningful action and ensure that there's a coordinated approach so that companies can't exploit different frameworks between jurisdictions. We need to be regulating online gambling to reduce gambling harms, with mandatory precommitment and a universal exclusion scheme across all platforms. We need to be regulating gambling in video games, with a prohibition on loot boxes being available to people under 18. In particular, we need to end the grip of the gambling industry on politics. We need to ban political donations from the gambling industry and restrict politicians and public servants from having that revolving door of working for the gambling industry. These changes are possible, and they are necessary if we are going to tackle the scourge that gambling is causing in our society. We can be doing more. We must be doing more. Otherwise the harm is just going to continue. People's lives are going to continue to be destroyed.

The level of losses is extraordinary. I've got some data on the losses. This is just for poker machine losses as an estimated proportion of annual gross income by local government areas in Victoria a few years ago. This is just poker machine losses. The municipality in Victoria which has the greatest losses is the City of Greater Dandenong, which is not a rich municipality. Most people in Greater Dandenong are just getting by. But, for people who are gambling on poker machines in the City of Greater Dandenong, the average loss was over 20 per cent of their income. I think about how many of these people would be just existing either on minimum wages or on income support, already living in poverty, on poverty payments. Yet they are shelling out 20 per cent of their income on poker machines, and you can bet those bottom dollars that that's not going to be their only gambling losses. If they are losing 20 per cent of their income on poker machines, no doubt they are gambling on sports and across the board as well.

This is causing huge harm. It's a huge economic harm for us, and we've got all of the personal harm that's being felt across the country. Think of that money that is being spent on gambling that is going into the pockets of these massively wealthy gambling companies. It's money that is not being spent on other more constructive things. It's money that's not being spent on food. It's money that's not being spent on other productive activities in our society.

This is a really core issue that we need to be facing as a parliament. The Greens are up to taking the actions that I've outlined. Let's use this level of interest in addressing gambling to actually get serious, to actually take the comprehensive approach to reduce gambling harm and to get the action that we need so that we can be minimising gambling harm, we can be helping people to recover from gambling harm and we can be really getting action on this incredibly important issue.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why is it that when a private senator's bill is put forward that proposes something positive—it's an incremental change, but it would make at least a small difference—we can't just all get behind it and support it to make that change? Why can't we just get behind it and support it? This Broadcasting Services Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements During Live Sport) Bill 2023 would make a positive difference. It shouldn't matter who's proposing it. It shouldn't matter if it's proposed by the government, the Greens, the opposition or anyone on the crossbench. If it's a positive change, why can't we just all get behind it and support it so that change can be made now? There hasn't been a single argument put against what is being proposed in this private senator's bill—not a single argument. Why can't we just support it, get behind it and implement it now? Why do we have to wait for further reviews? There might be further waves of reform, but why can't we make that change now? Why? This is why people get frustrated with the political process. There hasn't been a single argument of substance against this change.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Scarr. The time for debate has expired.