Twenty-one crossbenchers have signed a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling for a legislated “blanket ban on advertisements for online gambling”, arguing that “the reform package currently being discussed with stakeholders seems designed to prioritise broadcast media sustainability over public health concerns”.
Signatories include the teal independents, the Greens, Senator David Pocock, Senator Jacqui Lambie, former Labor senator Fatima Payman, Green-turned-independent Lidia Thorpe, Indi MP Helen Haines, independent for Clark Andrew Wilkie, Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie and Liberal MP for Bass Bridget Archer, with Archer the only current major party MP represented on the list.
Independent MP for Curtin Kate Chaney — who sat on the committee lead by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, which called for a blanket ban — told Crikey there were “people on both sides of the House who want to ban gambling ads but can’t speak up”.
Labor MPs Maria Vamvakinou and Louise Miller-Frost were also on Murphy’s committee, and although they have not signed the letter, they, along with Mike Freelander and Labor’s Victorian State Gaming Minister Melissa Horne, have both called for a ban.
Chaney said that the government’s proposal, on which she and other crossbenchers were briefed yesterday, was “more Swiss cheese regulation” of the gambling industry, full of holes and exemptions. She said it only addressed one of the 31 proposals put forward by Murphy’s committee.
“It was clear while we were being briefed that it was something on the other side of the ledger, other than public health, deciding these reforms,” she said. “And that thing on the other side of the ledger was commercial broadcasters’ sustainability.”
Chaney said the evidence presented to the committee overwhelmingly proved that partial bans on gambling ads don’t work.
“I asked [during the briefing] whether there was any new evidence, and I was told ‘oh well young people are always online now’, so banning it online was enough,” she said.
Chaney said there had been talk of a conscience vote on the matter “though not, as far as I know, by the people who actually make these decisions”.
“I imagine if individual MPs were to ask what their electorates actually wanted in this space, we’d have very different outcomes,” she said.
Anyone affected by problem gambling can get immediate assistance by calling the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free, professional and confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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