Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I'm pleased to support the member for Kooyong's bill to recognise gambling harm as a public health issue. Let's be honest about what we're up against. In 2024, Australia had about 550,000 high-risk gamblers. Of these, 16 per cent experienced suicidal thoughts; two-thirds faced serious financial hardship, including going without meals; and 19 per cent of people whose partner gambled weekly or more often experienced intimate partner violence. If a pharmaceutical drug caused that level of harm, we would pull it from the shelves. If an industrial chemical produced that collateral damage in Australian homes, it would be banned. This is a public health problem because it affects whole communities, because the harm is predictable and preventable, and because it's driven by an environment designed to maximise addiction.

Gambling companies spend millions to make their products as addictive as possible. This is not a fair fight. The best analogy is tobacco. The tobacco industry pushed the personal responsibility narrative for decades. It suited them to say that it's your choice whether you smoke or not. This was compelling enough to buy them additional decades of profits, but, ultimately, we saw through it. Nicotine is addictive. Personal responsibility doesn't work when you're pushing an addictive substance.

Gambling is the same. Gambling addiction is recognised in the DSM-5 as a health condition. Big gambling companies use sophisticated behavioural design, relentless advertising and data profiling to keep people betting and to bring kids into the funnel—and it shows. Per-household gambling losses in Australia are now higher than per-household electricity bills, but we tell people experiencing gambling addiction that it's up to them to self-exclude via BetStop or to gamble responsibly.

You would expect the Prime Minister to back the underdog—the Australian people—in this unfair fight. Instead, time and again, he chooses to fight for the gambling companies. Treating gambling harm as a public health issue was at the heart of the parliamentary inquiry recommendations I worked on alongside the late Peta Murphy. It's now been nearly 1,000 days since we tabled that report and there is still no response from this government.

We know what the Prime Minister will say to the member for Kooyong's bill. It's the same response he's used for nearly 1,000 days, as he stands alone within his party, alone within the parliament, fighting bravely and heroically for the interests of the big gambling companies. He will say, 'We have done more than any other government on gambling reform.' But the actions taken by this government came out of a previous coalition review. The Murphy review was undertaken assuming they would be implemented. They do not fix the problem.

He will say, 'Illegal offshore platforms are the problem.' This is a talking point from the gambling industry: 'Look over there.' The evidence shows that the domestic issue is bigger and, despite what the gambling companies say, banning gambling ads didn't push people to offshore sites in Spain or Norway.

He will say, 'You're trying to ban gambling.' No-one is trying to ban gambling. Adults will still be able to gamble, but people experiencing harm from gambling will not have ads shoved down their throats and will not be told it's their own problem. He will say, 'Free-to-air TV and community sport will collapse without gambling ads.' Well, TV and radio make about $250 million a year from gambling ads—roughly four per cent of their total ad revenue. The AFL and NRL make about $100 million combined, so this is a $340 million problem. Australians lose $87 million a day gambling. Four days of losses would replace a year of media and sport revenue. A levy of half a per cent on bets would replace that funding four times over. This is solvable.

It's time to recognise gambling harm as a public health issue and legislate accordingly. I commend this bill to the House.

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