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

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to the gambling industry.

I asked Minister Wong to confirm that no Labor MP accepted free tickets or hospitality from gambling corporations or their lobby groups to attend the Midwinter Ball held the night before Labor introduced its half-arsed gambling bill to parliament. And what did we get? We got evasion and we got weasel words.

Well, let me help the minister. On the eve of introducing what Labor describes as 'gambling reform', Labor MPs were seated at a Sportsbet purchased table at the Midwinter Ball. You could not script this stuff. They're breaking bread and rubbing shoulders with the very industry that profits from gambling harm in the same 24 hours they're claiming to be cracking down on gambling harm. When I asked the minister a simple question—'Does this pass the pub test?'—I get told there's nothing to see here. I get told we should put partisan politics aside so the minister's colleagues can party with the gambling lobby while overlooking the immense harm that gambling causes to people in this country. Minister, this is not leadership. This is corporate capture that creates real harm for people right across Australia.

Australians have had an absolute gutful. So-called convention around fancy dinners in this place does not excuse ministers accepting paid gifts from the very groups they are meant to regulate. We are not entitled to be in this place. We are elected to this place, and it is a privilege to serve those who elect us. Fancy dinner convention doesn't cut it for families facing financial ruin because of gambling. It doesn't cut it for those living with mental distress, family violence and in the worst case, in the most devastating case, suicide.

We all have disclosure obligations in this place, but they lag months behind. All I asked for was a moment of transparency, a moment of accountability. Unsurprisingly, we didn't get it. We also didn't get a guarantee that Labor MPs didn't accept free tickets to the Midwinter Ball bought by the gambling industry or a guarantee they weren't accepting hospitality, free tickets or corporate box invitations from the gambling industry whilst Labor consulted on their watered-down gambling legislation. Is it any wonder that it has been gutted? We're supposed to believe it's all just a coincidence. Sportsbet and Tabcorp donated more than $132,000 to Labor last year. We know that's not a donation; there are expectations around those contributions. Frankly, to these corporates, that's a bargain—a small investment to help water down reform, protect billions of dollars in profit and keep Australians gambling. But, for everyday people, that is a house deposit.

On a related theme of corporate capture, I have repeatedly asked a simple question of ministers: who attended Labor's $5,500-a-head budget night fundraiser? No minister would answer it. If there's nothing to hide, why keep it a secret? Who was there? Gambling executives, gas companies, property developers? For multinational corporations, 5½ thousand bucks is minor birdseed. It's eight weeks of income for aged pensioners. They cannot compete. It's an uneven playing field. You shouldn't have to be on a playing field with cash to get good outcomes in this place. But that 5½ grand buys something incredibly valuable. It buys access, relationships, influence—the chance to whisper into a minister's ear. It also fuels the fast-spinning door between this place and lobbying jobs: former ministers and former chiefs of staff walking straight into lobbying firms and industry bodies, cashing in on contacts and influence they built whilst meant to be serving the public.

Australians are sick of watching corporate insiders get privileged access while everyone else waits outside in the dark. And what has all of this access delivered? The great tragedy is that Labor's woeful gambling reforms will not keep Australians safe. The ones that Australians were promised will not eventuate. It's certainly not what Labor's own report recommended. Over $104 billion has been lost to gambling in the 1,000 days since the Murphy report was tabled. That is the real cost of Labor's weak reforms. Australians are asking themselves this: when Labor waters down gambling laws, when gambling companies donate hundreds of thousands of dollars, when ministers refuse to say who they're meeting with, who is this government actually working for?

Question agreed to.