Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That the following matter be referred to the Environment and Communications References Committee for inquiry and report by 2 March 2026:

Gambling advertising in Australian society, with particular reference to:

(a) the impact of gambling on Australian communities, families and children;

(b) the harm caused by gambling advertising and inducements, and their role in gambling addiction and the grooming of young gamblers;

(c) the impact and financial relationship of gambling advertising, media companies and sporting codes, including consideration of alternate funding streams;

(d) the various provisions as outlined in the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Ban Gambling Ads) Bill 2024;

(e) the government response to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm, chaired by the late Peta Murphy; and

(f) any other related matters.

(2) That the committee have the power to consider and use the records of the Environment and Communications References Committee appointed in the previous parliament.

I rise to put forward this motion to establish an urgent inquiry into the gambling industry's influence on Australian politics and the failure of this government to implement the core and essential recommendations of the Murphy report some three years ago.

We all know in this place that gambling advertising is out of control. We all know that the gambling industry continues to peddle its dangerous and insidious industry through vicious advertising, pushing advertising down the throats of regular Australians and straight into the hands—through devices—of our children and young people. We know, of course, that the damage that these gambling companies do to Australian families is significant. We've all heard the stories. We all know those heart-wrenching tales of loss, suicide, devastation and bankruptcy. We know that gambling addiction is a real issue in Australia. We know that Australia loses more, per capita, in gambling than anywhere else in the world. We are the biggest losers.

Considering all of this—considering all of the mounting evidence and all of the expert advice—the one thing that this parliament should be able to do is stop the dangerous promotion of gambling through the insidious advertising that occurs. But this parliament has failed because the government of the day, the Albanese government—despite making promises after promises to do something on gambling advertising—has failed. They've shown a total lack of courage and a total lack of leadership. Families that have been destroyed by the gambling industry and this horrible, sickening addiction have pleaded with the Prime Minister directly. They've pleaded with members of parliament on all sides to get this chamber to act.

The Murphy report, handed down almost three years ago, was very clear in its recommendations. Of course, that inquiry was populated with members from all sides of the political spectrum. There were members of the Labor Party—obviously the committee itself was chaired by the late Peta Murphy—there were members of the Liberal Party and the coalition, and there were Greens and crossbenchers. All of these members, after hearing such strong, important evidence and such convincing expertise, unanimously decided that this parliament needed to act and their recommendations were very clear: to stop gambling advertising in its tracks. If you want to stop the harm that gambling does to families, you have to stop the promotion, just like we've done with tobacco. Tobacco kills; we know smoking kills. We don't ban people from smoking; we ban the promotion of the dangerous and deadly product. That is what we need to be doing when it comes to gambling.

And the Albanese government said they would do it. They promised to do it. Then, three years down the track, another election gone by, and we hear crickets from the government. It seems the Prime Minister just doesn't have it in him to deliver this reform. Why would that be? Why, despite all the evidence, all the heartache, all the unnecessary loss of productivity and of money and of wellbeing, would the Prime Minister fail to act? Well, it's all about how powerful the vested interests are. The gambling lobby is huge. It's powerful. It's greedy.

And of course we know that the big corporate sporting codes are themselves addicted to gambling revenue. We know that our media companies are addicted to the gambling advertising money. Everyone is addicted. But it's everyday Australians, often the most vulnerable and the poorest in our communities, who are carrying the burden and paying the cost of this disgusting, vicious addiction. Millions of dollars—tens of millions of dollars—have flowed from the gambling industry into the pockets of the major parties through donations. Only yesterday there was again an announcement of several hundred thousand dollars, for just the last election year, flowing from some of the biggest gambling companies, Sportsbet and Tabcorp, straight into the pockets of the Labor Party—not to mention how much the gambling industry gives the conservative side of politics.

These greedy gambling companies have the Labor Party and the Liberal Party by the neck. And we have a prime minister, a government, who does not have the courage to say no, doesn't have the courage to tell them, 'Enough is enough; you've had a good ride.' That's why I put this motion forward today for an inquiry into the political influence that this industry has on our body politic, because it is so clear for everybody else to see. Yet, unless we face up to the reality in this chamber, we will never see action, it seems. It doesn't matter how many heartfelt stories we've heard from the families affected, or the pleas to fully represent the legacy of the late Peta Murphy, a Labor hero. Those pleas continue to fall on deaf ears. The silence from this government around acting on gambling advertising is deafening.

When is the Labor Party going to get a spine, to stand up to the greedy gambling lobby and do what is needed? Of course, we've heard all the arguments from the gambling industry as to why we can't have a ban on their advertising, the same as we heard from the big tobacco companies when we tried to ban tobacco advertising: people will get it somewhere else, or someone else will flog it; it'll all be done elsewhere. You hear the gambling lobby saying that people gambling online will just go further online and gamble overseas.

But, of course, these are the types of arguments that the gambling industry has peddled in every jurisdiction that has taken them on—everywhere else in the world that has said no, that has stood up to the dangers of the gambling industry, that has said no to advertising and has tried to rein in the insidious online advertising industry in particular that has ballooned under the guise of the new internet of social media and digital. They had the same argument in every country. Where those nations have stared down the gambling lobby, their fear factors and their fear tactics have not been borne out. In fact, there has been a drop in gambling, a drop in people being addicted to gambling, a drop in losses for people who simply can't afford it.

That's why the gambling industry don't want reform in terms of advertising. That's why the gambling industry don't want their ads banned on television or on our mobile phones that go straight into the hands of our children and our young people. That's why the gambling industry don't want a ban on inducements being texted to gambling addicts. Because they know if these methods, these inducements, these ads and advertisement campaigns can't go ahead, they will lose money. That means fewer people gambling. That means fewer families' lives destroyed. That means more people saved.

That's why the gambling industry doesn't want any changes to advertising. That's why they want to keep running ads during our favourite football games and during our summer cricket. That's why they want to be able to flood our children's mobile phones, tablets and YouTube channels with gambling ads. That's why they want to keep being able to text gambling addicts and say, 'Just a bit more; if you go again, we'll throw you a few bonuses.' They know that if they can't push their dangerous product down the throats of Australians, into the hands of our kids, into the minds of our vulnerable young people, then they won't be able to sell their product.

It is about greed. They must be making an awful lot of money if they're spending tens of millions of dollars convincing politicians not to act. If these big gambling companies have so much money that they can spend tens of millions of dollars in political donations to the Labour Party and the Liberal Party, just imagine how much profit they are making. And the profits are coming off the backs of hardworking Australians, of vulnerable people who simply can't afford to be sucked into this sickening, dangerous and deadly game.

I am not suggesting at all that we ban gambling. If people want to go and put a bet on the horses, that's up to them. If they want to go down to the casino, that's up to them. But stop being able to advertise this deadly product to people who simply can't afford it. It worked with tobacco, and the industry squealed about it, they screamed about it, they screamed blue murder just like the gambling lobby is doing now. We need a government that has the courage of their convictions to take them on.

This issue is not going to go away. I don't know how many times I have heard members in this chamber, particularly of the crossbench, stand up and plead with the government and the opposition, the members of the Liberal Party and the National Party, to join us for proper gambling reform. We've pleaded many, many times. But the major parties' addiction to the money that they get from the gambling lobby says everything.

But the issue is not going to go away, because more people than ever before are receiving and being bombarded with these dangerous ads. These companies are finding trickier, sneakier and nastier ways every single day to get into the phones, televisions and other devices of Australians right across the country and to convince our young people to just have a go. Of course, all they want is for them to become addicted. To break this addiction, this chamber has an opportunity today. Let's get into where the problem really is, and the problem is the Labor and Liberal parties' addiction to the gambling lobby's money.