Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Coalition has introduced this Bill because we believe the time has come to draw a line in the sand and put an end to gambling advertisements during live sport.

Footy time is family time—and family time is precious. Too precious to have it swamped by a rising tide of gambling ads.

Watching and listening to live sport is a great Australian tradition. And we want to preserve that.

The bombardment of betting ads takes the joy away from that tradition.

We know it, because the community is telling us.

They are over it. We are over it.

And as representatives of our communities, it is beholden on us to act on their behalf.

The time to act is now. That is why the Coalition is taking strong steps to implement a ban on advertising during live sport.

We know there is a problem. We're not going to wait for months as the Government has been signalling.

The Prime Minister says he finds the ads annoying. He's probably a bit annoyed too that the Coalition is once again providing the leadership on this issue.

We've seen the reporting that "Several Government sources said that while no decisions had yet been taken, (the Leader of the Opposition's) move had wrong-footed them."

Frankly, it doesn't matter whose idea it was. A good policy is a good policy and should be supported. It would be petulant to quibble over whose idea it was first.

Labor is hiding behind a parliamentary inquiry, which they say is due to hand down its report in the middle of the year.

One suspects they'll try to rush it out sooner, given they've been left behind on this issue.

But there is nothing stopping them supporting this Bill now. Today. The community wants it, and they expect their representatives to act.

This is the second set of reforms from the Coalition to limit the running of gambling advertisements during live sport.

In 2018, the Coalition Government passed a significant body of reforms in this area, limiting when and where gambling ads could be placed during live sport.

We have acted before—and we are taking action again.

The actions set out in this Bill are straightforward. They require minor amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act of 1992.

The changes would require industry codes of practice to be updated to incorporate the ban.

There are industry codes that apply to the different sectors within the media, including for commercial television, commercial radio and subscription broadcast television.

Online content is regulated separately, and the changes in this Bill ensure that live streaming is also captured by the gambling advertising ban.

Our bill allows for a transition period for the change. The Minister would be charged with the responsibility of ensuring industry transitions over to the new regime.

The ban would commence one hour before the scheduled start of the match and end one hour after its conclusion. It would apply to television and radio broadcasting and live streaming of sporting events.

This bill makes no changes to the existing exemptions on gambling advertising that apply to the broadcasting or live streaming of horse racing or other racing codes, or advertisements or promotions for government lotteries, lotto, Keno or contests.

In conclusion, we want to reiterate that footy time is family time. The Coalition believes that it is wrong in principle that children are subjected to gambling advertising when they just want to enjoy a sporting event with their families.

This Bill would put an end to that. I urge all Senators to support this important legislation.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.