Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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.

Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion be agreed to. It being after 6.30, we'll defer the division until the next sitting day.