Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) | Hansard source

Gambling addiction destroys lives, and it takes lives. It wrecks families, it erodes relationships, it hollows out regional communities and it leaves a wake of human misery and financial ruin right across our nation. The consequences of gambling are devastating: job loss, broken relationships, bankruptcy, domestic and family violence and other crimes and suicide. The human cost is heartbreaking, and it's there for all to see if we just take the time to listen and look.

Last year, I attended a gambling roundtable held here at Parliament House in Canberra. The Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja was there. He called out the government for being too slow to ban gambling advertising. We also heard from 'Kate', who didn't want to be identified and whose brother took his life by suicide brought on by gambling. 'Kate' said her brother lost $10,000 a year from gambling. She said this:

This is exactly the burden that our 24-year-old brother was carrying six days before he ended his life.

On this particular day he walked into the kitchen with pain all over his face and I could tell something was wrong, so I prompted him, are you okay? … He could barely find the words.

Six days later, my dad, sister and I found him 500 metres from our childhood home. The sound dad made, the look on my sister's face, haunts me every moment of every day.

'Kate' said her brother's suicide note stated:

I'm so disgusted and revolted with myself that I want to end my life before my addiction ruins more people around me.

That roundtable and 'Kate's' story were featured on the ABC's Four Corners program.

This legislation before the House—the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 and the National Self-exclusion Register (Cost Recovery Levy) Amendment Bill 2026—does not go far enough. It falls short of what's required to actually stop the harm. What we need is simple, clear and decisive action. We need to ban these toxic gambling inducements. We need a full ban on gambling advertising, not a partial one. We need a full ban. We need to implement the full recommendations of the landmark Murphy report. The late Peta Murphy has already given this parliament the blueprint that needs to be followed. It's comprehensive. It's a multiphase roadmap to ban online gambling advertising across the board. It was a bipartisan unanimous recommendation from a parliamentary committee: 31 recommendations grounded in evidence, backed by experts and demanded by the Australian public. Since the release of that report, Australians have lost over $104 billion to gambling. Between July 2023 and July 2026, that's $666 million each week. It represents a 75 per cent increase in gambling losses since 2020.

Many across Australia are asking a very simple question: Why? Why hasn't a full online gambling advertising ban been brought in before this time? I'll tell you why. It's because of the money. Don't think for a second that money doesn't talk in this place, because it does. I'm speaking to this House as someone who's escaped a major political party. I've seen how the machines operate. I'll give you an example. Back when I was in the National Party, we'd have these corporate days once or twice a year, right here in Canberra. I'm sure all of the major parties do it. They rent out a ballroom in a hotel, and the corporations pay big bucks for the privilege to meet with every single MP that they want to. A bell would ring after 10 or 15 minutes and the next one would come along.

Amongst those people that were coming to see the MPs were gambling companies. Gambling companies pay big money, and in return they get direct private access to the major parties. As election time approaches and the campaigns ramp up, so do the political donations. If you want to know why a comprehensive ban hasn't been implemented so far, if you want to know why we're getting half measures instead of total reform, follow the money. According to donor records, the Labor Party has collected about $5 million in gambling related donations in five years, including about $1.5 million in the lead-up to the last election. The coalition has pocketed about $4.5 million. Follow the money if you want to know why we haven't got a full gambling advertising ban in place.

Inside the major party rooms, MPs are locked in. I know that there would be backbenchers in all of the major political parties, and others on the crossbench, who agree with me. They know that online gambling advertising should be banned, but many of them—too many of them—are afraid to speak out. They feel that they're in a political straitjacket, because they're told by their leadership: 'This is the party line. This is what we're doing. Sit down and go with it.' Trust me—I've seen it and I know how it rolls. Occasionally you'll get someone in a major party who's brave enough to speak out, but it doesn't happen very often.

This is the great thing about being an independent and serving on the crossbench. You get to stand up in this place and say exactly what you believe in on behalf of the people who sent you here. We speak out on the difficult issues that members of the major political parties are unable to and so often fail to. The only reason we're having this debate now is because the crossbench has been driving this—not the major political parties, the crossbench. That's because we're not beholden to party interests. We're not beholden to the donors from the gambling companies. When I speak with people across our regional communities in the Central West of this great state of New South Wales, they are demanding real, long-lasting reform, because, when you get out into the real world, away from the corporate lobbyists in Canberra, you can see that this is an issue about priorities and community health.

Why would we want to keep socialising and brainwashing our kids into thinking that gambling and watching sport go hand in hand as an acceptable, normal part of everyday life? I remember a few years ago I was sitting with my son. We were about to watch an NRL game. He was in primary school at that time. It was a Bulldogs game. Before the game had even kicked off, he looked at me and started quoting the betting odds for the match. I just couldn't believe it. I was stunned. A primary school child who knew the betting odds on the footy game that he was about to enjoy with his dad—unbelievable. Since that day, it has just got worse and worse.

When our young people grow up believing that you can't enjoy Rugby League or AFL or cricket or any other sporting event without putting a bet on, we've failed them. We are conditioning the next generation of Australians to walk into a trap of financial distress and addiction. In every electorate of Australia, we see the ripple effects of gambling. There are the effects on the person doing the gambling, but there are also the families who can't pay for their groceries, the parents losing their homes, the small businesses left unpaid and the devastating, tragic loss of life when someone sees no other way out. We have the means in this place to stop this. We can all do it and we should be doing it. It's simply the right thing to do.

Let's be clear. This isn't about banning gambling. It's not about that at all. I don't seek to ban gambling. Like others in this place, I like the odd flutter or the punt every now and again. It's not about banning gambling. It's about protecting the community and preventing the tragic consequences of gambling addiction. I've heard people in this House say that there has to be individual responsibility. Really? It's our kids we're talking about here, for crying out loud! Are you really prepared to put it back on them or put it back on the gambling addicts—those who feel that they don't have a choice but to answer the irresistible call of the betting companies? Following that logic, you could have argued that we shouldn't have banned smoking advertising. We banned smoking advertising because we, as a society, accepted the harm it caused, how addictive it was, and we did something about it. We didn't just say that it was up to the individual or the kids to deal with it and work it out. It's disgraceful.

This is about stopping predatory corporate behaviour, banning aggressive inducements and removing the constant saturated presence of gambling ads from our screens and our airwaves. There is something direct and meaningful that we can do in this parliament to make life better for the vast number of Australians. We can prevent whole families going through unimaginable pain and spare other parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters from the heartbreak of losing a loved one to gambling fuelled despair. How much more evidence do we need? How many more stories of people taking their lives because of gambling addiction do we need to hear until we do the right thing?

We have the power to do it here in this chamber. That's what we're here for. We should be doing it now in this House. We need to do it. We need real action, the full 31 recommendations of the Murphy report implemented and inducements banned. Our communities want the ads off our TVs and off our kids' screens. Let's stand up to the moneyed interests and put our children and our communities first. The compromised half-measures in this bill are simply not good enough. We need a complete ban on online gambling advertising.

We're in this place to make life better for the people who we represent. We're not here to do the bidding of gambling companies. Banning gambling advertising is the right thing to do. Peta Murphy knew it, and, in their hearts, there are a lot of people in the major parties in this place who know it too. We need to ban gambling advertising to spare our children, our fellow Australians and their families from the tragic human cost of gambling addiction. People need to be put ahead of profits. The price of inaction on a ban on gambling advertising is more lives destroyed and more lives lost.

See this speech in context