Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Prime Minister. Australia led the world with cigarette plain packaging laws. We also led the world with the social media ban. But Australia is also the world leader in gambling harm, with the highest per capita gambling losses in the world. Plain packaging, the social media ban—Labor governments have shown us that they can get these hard but important things done. Prime Minister, gambling harm is killing people. When will you finally take real action and keep Australians safe?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for her question. I acknowledge, as part of that question, her welcome acknowledgement that it is always Labor governments that do the big things, that do the big reforms that change the country for the better. That is what we do. I thank the member for Bradfield for acknowledging that. Now, when it comes to gambling, we've done more than any other government to tackle online gambling harms.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I move a point of order, Mr Speaker?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I'd like the House to return to order. Prime Minister.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're continuing to consult with stakeholders on this important issue because we know that more needs to be done. We're focused on addressing three key priorities when it comes to gambling. The first is minimising children's exposure to wagering advertising, the second is breaking the connection between wagering and sport, and the third is reducing the saturation and targeting of wagering advertising.

Further reforms will build on the work that we've done up to this point. We have launched BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register. Just as one example, there have now been 58,000 total registrations, and 36,000 of those are currently active. Thirty-eight per cent of those people have chosen a lifetime ban. Eighty-one per cent of the registrants said that they have completely stopped betting on sports or racing events, and 15 per cent said they had reduced it. Four in five people who've registered for self-exclusion have since experienced a better overall quality of life, and 79 per cent say that their mental health has got better as a direct result of that. We know that BetStop is working, and we know as well that more needs to be done.

We need to also acknowledge something that hasn't been a part of a lot of the public discourse here. Overwhelmingly, problem gambling's greatest issue is poker machines—overwhelmingly—and second in terms of the list, and a growing area, is the issue of lotteries or keno in their various forms, including on devices, which give people far greater access to them.

We also need to acknowledge, because this is an economic issue as well when it comes to our tax issues and offshore sites, the major issue of the drain of money being suctioned overseas by these companies. One of the things that the government are examining is what we can do to deal with those overseas sites that are causing harm and are completely unregulated because of the nature of them being overseas. These issues aren't simple, but the government are working each and every day to make sure that we continue to make a difference, and I'll continue to report on further reforms.