Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think my contribution will be about one minute long, but I just want to clarify and perhaps correct the record, having listened to the previous speaker and a number of other opposition speakers. There is no disagreement that this bill is necessary and overdue. And the minister who's sitting here is absolutely right to bring it forward to the House, for it to be a government bill, to ban the use of credit cards for online gambling.

It's a gold medal that Australia does not want to win but, sadly and tragically, we do: we have the highest per capita loss for online gambling of any people of any country in the world. This bill is right to ban credit cards for online gambling, to bring it into line with the rules in the real world. Some people choose to gamble—it's legal. But gambling addiction destroys lives—untold thousands of lives in my community, one of the poorest in Melbourne. If people choose to gamble they should gamble only with money they actually have, not fake money on a credit card or a loan, and money they can afford to lose. In that sense, this bill is overdue.

But I want to correct the record, because there was a bit of misleading sanctimony from some previous speakers. I really commend the member for Flinders on the work you've done and outlined on this issue, but you're a new member, and I just want to clarify one thing. You said that this policy work was driven by the previous government. But let's not be too cute. This was a righteous crusade of the member for Fisher personally, when he chaired the corporations committee, before he was elected Speaker, and the work died at that point. Your party room was split. The previous government never responded to it. We know this, because we were pushing for it, and I was engaging with some of your members of good conscience who wanted to see this happen. But there was no will in the former government in the party room to take on the gambling lobby, and I commend the member for Fisher for his work in bringing this forward. It is to his credit.

I'm pleased that the committee adopted it, but it is a pity that the former government chose never to respond to the report and, as I think everyone knows, was never going to actually do this. So, let's not get too cute and claim credit for the former government for this. It was absolutely driven by a number of members of good conscience, and I really applaud you on the work you're doing on this issue.

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