Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank my colleague Senator Hanson-Young for this vital referral for a committee inquiry. Here we are again, confronting an industry so deeply embedded in our politics it feels like trying to pry open steel with our bare hands. Gambling isn't only hurting Australians; it is shaping our politics in ways that should concern us and make us very, very mad.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of the damage that gambling causes, especially to young people and to vulnerable communities, this government continues to drag its heels. It has been more than two years since an inquiry delivered 31 unanimous recommendations. The evidence is there, the political cover is there, and yet almost nothing has changed—not because the facts and the evidence are unclear but because the gambling lobby is louder and it's richer. And it is far more present in these halls than the people being hurt by gambling. Let's be clear; the gambling lobby has more influence on the Labor Party than Labor's own members, not to mention its voters.

The gambling industry is the most prolific lobby group in this country. The Australian Leadership Index shows that they've got 280 lobbyists crawling around Canberra, more than double those from any other harmful industry. When hundreds of paid advocates are knocking on doors, drafting briefs and shaping narratives every day, reform doesn't stall by accident; it stalls by design.

The money doesn't end with lobbying. It flows through the corporate boxes, free tickets, exclusive events—privileges that everyday Australians do not see but captured politicians do. In just two years, Labor and coalition MPs were showered with $245,000 in free sports tickets by organisations opposing a gambling advertising ban. The Prime Minister personally accepted close to $29,000, and Peter Dutton over $21,000. It's influence dressed up as generosity. Imagine being a Labor MP, defending the gambling industry, pretending it's your actual view and not influenced by the truckloads of gifts and donations that you're taking from Sportsbet.

'Disclosure day' at the AEC should be a moment of transparency. Instead it has become a ritual of confirmation: Tabcorp, $60,000; Responsible Wagering, almost $35,000; Clubs Australia, almost $80,000; and Sportsbet, $71,000. Sportsbet is the same company that admitted creating Snapchat filters to promote gambling to our children. When industries that profit from addiction directly fund political parties, it's no surprise when policy mirrors their interests.

Then, of course, there's the revolving door. Former ministers, senior advisers and bureaucrats move seamlessly into lucrative industry roles in the very sectors they once regulated. For folks watching at home, in this building they call the gambling boardrooms retirement homes for Labor MPs. That's how deep this problem is. Research published in Public Health Research and Practice shows that over a third of Australia's registered lobbyists once worked inside government. That pipeline corrodes public trust and entrenches conflicts of interest. The government's lobbyist code of conduct is so weak it barely qualifies as regulation. It excludes in-house lobbyists, offers little transparency around ministerial diaries, imposes no meaningful cooling-off periods and carries virtually no penalties. When I questioned the Attorney-General's Department in Senate estimates about enforcement of the Lobbying Code of Conduct, what did I hear? That the typical response to breaches isn't a fine, an investigation, or even a public report. It's engagement, a stern email, a polite chat. That is the total sum of our oversight. The result? A capture of government by an industry that profits from addiction, desperation and misery.

It's the same playbook that we've seen from big tobacco, big alcohol and the fossil fuel lobby. Flood the political system with money, influence and favours, normalise harm, frame reform as extreme, delay, delay, delay and cash in on everyday Australians. Meanwhile, the harm escalates. Families lose homes, relationships fracture, women and children face increased violence and people lose their lives. People are literally dying because of the major parties' inability to put people's safety ahead of their dodgy political donations from the gambling lobby.

And the harm continues to grow. Around three million Australians now experience gambling harm, financial distress, mental health crises and family breakdown. This isn't just a few problem gamblers. This is a public health crisis comparable to alcohol and tobacco. Young people are being groomed into lifelong customers. Research shows that gambling advertising changes behaviour. One in five young women and one in seven young men have started betting after exposure to ads, and that's just from television. Online it's an absolute minefield. Sport, once a unifying passion, has been saturated. Children learn betting odds before they learn the rules of the game. The harm is real, it's widespread and it is entirely preventable, but only if the government stops working for the lobbyists and starts working for the people who elected it.

Australians are already ahead of the parliament. Polling consistently shows how strong support is for advertising bans, for donation caps and for tougher regulation. Yet we remain stalled, waiting, and watching reform hesitate in the shadow of an industry that has made itself unavoidable. I think, and the Greens think, that it's time to cut the cord. Australians think it's time to cut the cord.

This inquiry is not symbolic. It is absolutely necessary. It will finally force parliament to confront the full scale of gambling harm in our communities—the financial stress, the family violence and the mental health impacts, and the millions of Australians who are affected. It will also expose how advertising and inducements are used to recruit young people earlier, not as punters but as lifelong customers often targeted when young. It will shine a light on the financial relationships between gambling companies, media organisations and sporting codes and on the web of influence that has kept reforms stalled and kept kids watching ads for products that can ruin their lives. If we can't protect our own democracy from the influence of gambling ads, how can we claim to govern in the public interest? How can we look young people in the eye and say their wellbeing comes second to corporate profit? Is Labor really willing to sacrifice an entire generation to a lifelong, crippling gambling addiction? Your job is to work for the people who elected you, not the people who hand out tickets to the corporate boxes.