Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Newcastle for raising the very important issue of gender based violence and our colleague the member for Leichhardt for his very generous contribution. But I really feel that I need to draw attention to the government's failure to address one of the key drivers of gender based violence, that being gambling. Less than a month ago this parliament received the second yearly report from the independent Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission. The report noted that over the last 15 years there has been no shortage of royal commissions, inquiries, coronial inquests and reviews into the experiences of women and children facing violence. Those reports have come up with over a thousand recommendations—many repeated, many consistent, many overlapping.

We don't lack solutions for gender based violence. They're well established. What we lack is coordinated action led by the federal government to implement solutions that will save women's lives. The 2020 report, commissioned by the Commonwealth Institute of Family Studies, into the relationship between gambling and domestic violence against women found a clear correlation between gambling addiction and financial abuse as well as other harms. It shared stories of women who'd had to support the family alone while their partners gambled away his wages, women who'd had their bank accounts cleaned out and their mortgage payments taken by a partner to spend on gambling, women who'd lost their homes and their assets and been coerced or defrauded into taking on debt, and women who'd been assaulted by partners angry because of their losses. Amongst the study's seven headline recommendations is the suggestion that we should tighten regulation of the gambling industry to prevent gambling related harm, including a reduction in gambling advertising—a recommendation clearly stated but as yet unimplemented.

Another example, which will be familiar to MPs in this place, is the report produced by the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs into online gambling and those experiencing gambling harm. It's now 28 months since the You win some, you lose more report was released. It cited evidence from the Australian Gambling Research Centre that 69 per cent of Australians believe they see too many betting advertisements. The committee recommended banning online gambling advertising, in part due to the serious psychological, health, financial and relationship harm that is caused by gambling: another consistent finding, and another recommendation clearly stated but, as yet, unimplemented.

Last year, the Prime Minister described family violence as a national crisis. He commissioned an urgent review of preventative measures. That review recommended, amongst other things, government intervention in the industries from which family violence gets its foundations and its means of escalation—notably, gambling and alcohol. The review recommended restrictions leading to a total ban on gambling advertising—another recommendation without action.

Experts are imploring the government to develop a razor-sharp focus on coordinated, accountable delivery of longstanding recommendations to prevent family violence. All are wondering why a prime minister who called family violence a national crisis now seems more concerned about protecting the revenue of broadcasters and sporting codes than protecting women and children from abuse. We don't need more recommendations. Australian women and children need action.

One of the best places to start is by banning predatory gambling advertising. In the words of the late Peta Murphy:

We have a culture where sport and gambling are intrinsically linked. These behaviours are causing increasingly widespread and serious harm to individuals, families and communities.

Police are called to hundreds of thousands of domestic and family violence incidents a year in Australia—as many as one every two minutes, or two since I began this speech. If we banned gambling advertising this week, we could save dozens or even hundreds of Australian women from family violence this summer. It's time for the government to stop talking and to do what it knows it needs to do. It's time to ban gambling advertising.

See this speech in context