Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House:

(1) notes that this morning the Government introduced useless legislation which will do little to prevent gambling advertising and protect vulnerable Australians and children from gambling harm; and

(2) calls on the Prime Minister to personally explain to the House, and to all Australians, why protecting gambling companies, media companies and major sporting codes is more important to him and his government than protecting the interests, and lives, of Australians.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Clark from moving the following motion:

That the House:

(1) notes that this morning the Government introduced useless legislation which will do little to prevent gambling advertising and protect vulnerable Australians and children from gambling harm; and

(2) calls on the Prime Minister to personally explain to the House, and to all Australians, why protecting gambling companies, media companies and major sporting codes is more important to him and his government than protecting the interests, and lives, of Australians.

Sadly, this is not my first rodeo. We've been here before and we've already seen into the heart of the Labor Party in Australia. From 2010 to 2013, my first term, I had a written contract with the Prime Minister that there would be widespread and deep gambling reform in the country. But, of course, the gambling industry applied the blowtorch to the government, and I assume the factions applied the blowtorch to the Prime Minister. Ultimately, the Prime Minister refused to honour that deal, and the government went on its own path with much weaker gambling reform. Of course, that didn't save the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Gillard was eventually toppled by the factions, in fact, and it didn't save the government, because the government lost in a landslide to then opposition leader Tony Abbott.

I'm not saying that the government's behaviour at the time was the reason for that election loss, but I will assure you, Deputy Speaker Garland, it was in the mix. It was one of the significant factors among a complex set of factors as to why the Labor Party lost power in 2013, and here we are again—an opportunity for a Labor government to enact very meaningful gambling reform and implement the 31 recommendations of the Murphy report, which is without doubt the best blueprint for gambling reform this country has ever seen. It's not like 2010-13, when it was a power-sharing parliament and things were difficult for the government. This time is completely different. The government has a thumping majority in the House of Representatives, and, if it were to try to legislate and enact strong gambling reform, I don't doubt it would have the support of the Greens in the Senate.

In other words, this time around, the Labor Party has a clear runway. There is no obstacle in the way to finally doing it, so we've got to ask ourselves: why is the government acting in this way? Why is the government determined to run a protection racket for the gambling companies, for the media companies and for the major sporting codes? Is it because the government is gutless and scared stiff of the gambling companies, the media companies and the sporting codes? Or worse, is it because the government is complicit and is a fellow traveller with the gambling companies, the media companies and the sporting codes? Or even worse than that, is it because the government has no humanity and does not care about the human cost of gambling in this country? It's not just the financial cost.

It was interesting. We had a counter put out yesterday by the Australia Institute, and it shows the amount of money lost to gambling in this country since the Murphy report was given to the government. It has now exceeded $100 billion. I'll say that again. In Australia, more than $100 billion—with a B—has been lost by gamblers since the committee brought down the Murphy report. How can we tolerate that? And it's not just a financial cost; It's a personal cost. Who knows how many people in Australia are battling gambling addiction or are at serious risk of developing a gambling addiction at the moment? I remember back then, 2010-13, the figure for just poker machine gambling addiction was over 100,000. Now, with the avalanche of gambling addiction from online and sports betting, we can safely assume it's hundreds of thousands of Australians either addicted to gambling or at serious risk of developing an addiction.

We know from very, very good research that, for every gambling addict in this country, between five and 10 other people are affected by that person's addiction—mums, dads, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, work colleagues, friends, people in the street who are victims of crime. The gross number of Australians who are affected by this is easily measured in the millions, and what does the government do? It brings out this half-arsed set of reforms in this bill this morning that will do very little to address gambling addiction in this country.

It has completely ignored the flagship recommendations of the Murphy report. It has completely ignored that there be a phased out but ultimately complete ban on gambling advertising, which three quarters of Australians desperately want. It has completely ignored the recommendation that there be an independent national regulator instead of this complete nonsense where a part-time regulatory body in the Northern Territory of all places, populated by officials who have connections to gambling themselves, are regulating all of these online sports betting companies Australia-wide. What complete and utter nonsense.

The government has completely ignored the use of inducements by the gambling and sports betting companies, and I'll tell you why. I want to speak in support of a lot of my colleagues in this place—a lot of backbenchers. There are a lot of good people in the House of Representatives. There are a lot of good people in the other place. But they are being stopped by their leadership. I'll talk in detail about the Prime Minister in a moment. But, briefly, to talk about the opposition, I don't think the opposition leader gets it. I don't think he understands the enormity of the problem. I don't think he even understands the politics of it. He's finally got an issue where he can polish up the brand of his party, because support for reform extends from the far left across to the far right.

If you just want to talk raw, grubby politics for a minute, you could ask: why are we doing alright? It's because we focus on the issues the majority of people care about. So I say to the opposition leader: do your research, talk to your backbenchers and get on side.

But I say to the Prime Minister, who ultimately controls the government: stop blocking reform. Stop going into your caucus and telling your caucus members what they will do and what they will say and how they will vote. Listen to your membership, because everyone in this place—opposition, crossbench, government; all of us—is confronting, every day, people calling for reform.

Every day we're meeting with people who are battling addiction. We're meeting with families who have had someone in their family suicide because of addiction. They say that at least 400 people suicide a year as a result of gambling addiction in this country, and we know that the prevalence is probably chronically underreported. In other words, since the Murphy report was provided to the government, more than a thousand Australians have suicided because of inaction by politicians and governments. How can we live with that? How can we sleep at night? How can the Prime Minister sleep at night?

I say to the Prime Minister: if you're not going to fix this, then get out of the way and let the parliament fix it. Give us a free vote. Let us decide this. Let us represent our communities. Until we fix this, we are complicit. This parliament is a fellow traveller with the gambling companies, the media companies and the sporting codes, who are like jackals feeding on the carcasses of gambling addicts. This is intolerable.

I call on the government to put aside that rubbish bill that was tabled today—or at least let it go to a committee, as was moved by the member for Curtin earlier today—and fix this. Fix it once and for all and be seen as a government with integrity. Stare down the media companies. Stare down the gambling companies. Stare down the major sporting codes. But represent the majority of your community. And do you know what? You might even be rewarded politically. It sure didn't help Julia Gillard in 2012 when she ditched these reforms. It was in the mix when she was toppled as leader and defeated at the polls.

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