Senate debates

Monday, 22 September 2014

Bills

Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2014) Bill 2014; In Committee

5:57 pm

Photo of Nick XenophonNick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his answer. I want to make one point before I put a specific question to the minister. Make no mistake—and the opposition should be aware of this as well—if you make the change that is proposed by the government in this bill in relation to complaints to do with online gambling, you will weaken the provisions that provide some framework of protection to consumers. You will weaken some avenues of redress for consumers, because the change would mean that ACMA can say it is not desirable to pursue them. It is a much broader discretion. There will be fewer cases investigated. The shonky online gambling operators from around the world will know that the chance of detection or prosecution will be reduced even further with these changes. Sending a green light to those shonks who destroy people's lives is not the direction we should be heading in.

The specific question I have for the minister is: does he concede that the ability for the Commonwealth Ombudsman to be involved in a review of a decision—or the circumstances in which that will occur—will, of necessity, be more limited than they are in the current legislation? In other words, there is less scope for the Ombudsman to be involved in matters of review because it is now much more difficult to get to that threshold at which the Ombudsman can be involved—by virtue of having a 'desirable to do so' test.

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