David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Usman Khawaja has come to Parliament House to talk to elected representatives about the need to act on gambling advertising. I was just at a roundtable hosted by the member for Curtin, Kate Chaney, where Usman spoke, where Professor Samantha Thomas from Deakin University spoke and where Dr Kerry Aust from the AMA ACT spoke to colleagues from across the political spectrum about just what is happening due to our inaction as a parliament to act on the evidence when it comes to gambling advertising. We have a whole generation of young Australians growing up now who think that gambling is just a normal part of being Australian, that it's a normal part of watching sport. That's shame on us and that is shame on the Labor government, to have a report that had multipartisan backing and to not act, to bow to the vested interests of the gambling companies who are leaning on the media companies, the AFL and the NRL. We have to put our communities, we have to put young people, ahead of vested interests, ahead of profits, when it comes to gambling advertising in this country. There is no excuse.

We heard from those with the lived experience of facing gambling addiction and finding a way to deal with it, with just the joy of now being able to enjoy community sport once again, without having to think about the odds and what that might mean. Then we heard from someone who, tragically, lost a brother to gambling addiction who took his own life. They were talking about how hard it is to actually get a meeting with the Prime Minister or the minister, who say that they're acting but will not meet with the people who this is affecting. (Time expired)