Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

Thank you. I want to acknowledge the great work the member for Cook has been doing working with our colleagues to try and see some meaningful reform here. I'm not for a second suggesting that I or anybody on my side has some sort of philosophical licence on all of this stuff. As I started out saying, this is an issue where reasonable minds differ. We have to get that balance right between protection of personal freedoms and protecting vulnerable Australians, like kids, like problem gamblers. But I, in my heart of hearts, do not believe that the government has that mix right with this bill, and I'll tell you why. Young kids, because of the explosion of gambling ads, particularly during sport, have become incapable of differentiating sport from gambling. It's all about the odds. When I was a kid growing up, on a Monday morning when you were exchanging footy cards, you were talking about your favourite player or who kicked what goal. Now kids are talking about odds. Why? Because gambling companies have preyed upon them.

The explosion of gambling ads during sport doesn't happen by some coincidence. This is a deliberate strategy to hook young Australians in to become high-risk gamblers. Now, lots of people can gamble and stop and not become a problem gambler. I'm not concerned about them. I am concerned about our kids. I am concerned about our problem gamblers. I'm concerned that, when a goal is scored, we see every LED screen light up in a stadium with the name of a gambling company. I'm concerned that wherever I see a jersey or sport shorts being worn by our sportsmen and women, you can bet your bottom dollar—pardon the pun—that there's a gambling company patch on it. It's this proliferation of gambling ads that is so problematic in this country.

I believe some sensible reforms should be in this bill. We should have a ban on sports gambling ads an hour before the game, totally during and an hour after, not this half-hearted approach of the government of five minutes before, five minutes after and still being able to see gambling ads when there's a goal or an unexpected stoppage in the game. That's crazy. What do they think—that kids are not going to watch it? And I think that should apply to live sport as well as replayed sport.

I want to see specific opt-in arrangements in this bill. If you're an adult and you want these inducements from gambling companies to gamble more, you should have to say 'I want that; please send it to me' rather than 'I don't want it', because that's what the arrangement is now. The arrangement now is that you have to opt out. I think you should have to specifically, expressly, opt in for this stuff—for these inducements that we heard so much about in the Senate inquiry last week. I think that, if you want to receive gambling ads on your streaming services, you should have to opt in. These are simple reforms—simple measures that this government could take today, with some amendments, that would protect our kids and protect our vulnerable Australians.

Who's it going to impact upon? It's going to impact upon the gambling companies, on their bottom line. Yes, there will be the sporting codes that will jump up and down. I'm a big believer that nature abhors a vacuum. When the smoking laws came in that said you couldn't have smoking advertising, everybody jumped up and down. Cricket, in particular, jumped up and down and said, 'This is terrible. This will be the death of cricket!' Nature abhors a vacuum. If the gambling companies are prevented from being able to spend their billions of dollars on gambling ads, someone else—some other organisation or some other industry—will fill it. That cannot be an argument. Surely we've learnt that from smoking. We need to adopt a public health approach to gambling. Smoking is legal; yes. Gambling is legal. But we made a decision decades ago not to allow smoking ads. What's the difference? The difference is that this is a strong, powerful, well-heeled lobby group.

We need to stand up. This is an opportunity for Australians. This is an opportunity for us, as parliamentarians. This is why we are here. If not for this, for what? This is why our people, our constituents, sent us here—to stand up for them in this place. If not now, when? If not on this, on what? This is a classic golden opportunity for this parliament to come together to work together for the benefit of Australians. Let's not squib this opportunity. Let's not take the easy road.

Yes, it's a difficult decision. Yes, there will be lobby groups and industries that will be upset about what I'm saying. But you know what? I read a recent poll which said that somewhere around 70 per cent—it may have been even higher: 70 to 80 per cent—of Australians want to see significant reform in relation to gambling. Name me another issue where you get such broadscale support in Australia for reform. It is a no-brainer. We've got political support from our people. All we need now is the political gumption to deliver on that and to deliver for the Australian people.

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