Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make some observations on what I would like to characterise as a well-meaning but ineffective bill. I would like to make a few comments first about how the original bill works. The bill is a bill to amend the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. It arises from recommendations of the O'Farrell review. The O'Farrell review is just the latest in a series of reviews which have inquired into this piece of legislation and the surrounding area of problem gambling in this country. I have been involved in some of them but not all of them.

The bill, like the act that it seeks to amend, is a well-meaning attempt to prohibit the provision of certain online gambling services in Australia. I say well-meaning but ineffective for several reasons. By definition, the provision of online gaming services are transnational and notoriously difficult to ban. Even if you thought it was a good idea to ban them, it is very, very difficult to ban something that operates in international space across jurisdictions. There are prohibited gambling services that are offered to people in Australia. They operate from other countries. Sometimes those businesses are regulated in the jurisdictions where they operate; sometimes they are not.

I have had a look just before coming down here just to prove the points that I am about to make. I seek leave to table this document, which is one I have just recently downloaded from the internet, headed: 'Best online casinos for Australians.' I seek to table it to make the point.

See this speech in context