I rise to speak on the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, a bill that is as deeply flawed as it is disappointing. It's often said that gambling is to Australia what guns are to the US. We've heard it before. It's our blind spot. The highly respected Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, the late Peta Murphy MP, summed up gambling harms powerfully in her introduction to the You win some, you lose more report. She wrote:

Australians are the biggest losers in the world when it comes to gambling. We have a culture where sport and gambling are intrinsically linked. These behaviours are causing increasingly widespread and serious harm to individuals, families and communities.

The gambling industry has been allowed to let rip in Australia for way too long. So, when the committee handed down its report on online gambling harms in Australia in 2023 with 31 recommendations that had unanimous and multiparty support from all on the committee, there was a huge amount of optimism that our parliament would be able to achieve meaningful reforms and protections for Australians, particularly for our children and young Australians. But we waited, and we waited. It was over 1,000 days before the government provided its response, and, when it finally did, the proposed reforms were devastatingly disappointing and a far stretch from the comprehensive suite of recommendations of the You win some, you lose more report.

Let's be clear. No-one is calling for an end to gambling or trying to stop people from gambling. This is not about stopping people from 'having a punt on the Saturday', as the PM keeps repeating. It's about regulating the endless deluge of advertising, marketing, promotions, inducements and other tactics that the gambling industry uses to reel people in, get them hooked and keep them gambling.

I'll say it again: gambling is to Australia what guns are to the US. We are the biggest losers per capita to gambling anywhere in the world. Last year Australians lost $36 billion to gambling. Report after report shows gambling losses growing across every demographic and postcode in the country and causing serious harm. Australia's gambling losses have increased a staggering 75 per cent since 2020, with online gambling now being a major driver. While the government has sat on its hands since the release of the Murphy report three years ago, Australians have lost over $104 billion to gambling. This affects so many people across our communities. The harms are not isolated to so-called problem gamblers. We all know people who are harmed by gambling, whether it's their own gambling or that of somebody that they know, so it's time to stop pointing the finger of blame at the individual, and instead point it at government policy and the predatory industry behaviours.

A young man in my electorate told me a story that shocked me. He'd been at a pub with his mates not long before, and they'd all been chatting about gambling. Every single one of them sitting around that table had estimated that they had lost the equivalent of a deposit on a house due to gambling over the past several years. That is your everyday bloke on the Northern Beaches.

So many people I speak to want an end to gambling. This is all pervasive. Gambling harm is a whole-of-society issue. It is addictive, and, all too often, it is the cause of significant financial distress, mental distress, shame, family breakdown, family violence, job loss, home loss, crime and, most tragically of all, suicide. Over 400 Australians die by suicide linked to gambling every year. This is a national tragedy and our national shame. In Mackellar organisations such as Women Children First, the Northern Beaches Women's Shelter and Zonta Northern Beaches all witness the true impacts of gambling harm in the work that they do to support women and children fleeing domestic violence. Zonta president Dr Scott wrote to me recently and noted that efforts to reduce family violence will remain limited unless the role of gambling harm is directly addressed through stronger regulation and legislation. It seems senseless to me that, at the same time the government is refusing to end gambling advertising, it is consulting on the Second Action Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.

The gravity and extent of the problem and harms were clearly documented by the committee inquiry into online gambling. The report showed that regulation of the industry has failed. It has failed because it is fragmented and inconsistent, consumer protections are far from adequate, and harm-reduction services are underresourced. The overarching failure is that gambling corporations have no responsibility for preventing harm.
I want to now turn to the specifics of the bill. The You win some, you lose more gambling report had 31 recommendations for reform. These were underpinned by international evidence. Most of these have been roundly ignored. The government's proposed reforms in this bill contain no comprehensive phase-out of gambling advertising, no end to industry inducements, no single national regulator and currently contains an opt-out framework for online gambling advertising instead of an opt-in framework.

I'll start by talking about the gambling ads. The Murphy report recommended a comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising to be phased in over three years across all media, broadcast and online in a way that would leave no room for circumvention. Public support for a complete ban on gambling advertising in Australia is very strong, with polling commissioned by the Australia Institute showing roughly 80 per cent of Australian citizens back in a total phase-out of gambling advertising. Instead, the government is proposing a set of limited restrictions, allowing three gambling ads per hour between six am and 8.30 pm and no gambling ads during live sports before 8.30 pm but a free for all after 8.30 pm. For a footy game that kicks off at 7.55, that means gambling ads throughout more than half of the match, and, as a mum of three, I can tell you the kids will not be going to bed at 8.30. They will continue to be exposed regularly to gambling advertising. When department officials were asked to provide evidence for these measures during the recent Senate inquiry, they were not able to. The limits to gambling ads on radio are even weaker, with ads not being permitted for only one hour in the morning and afternoon during school drop-off and pick-up times. I've got to say, this is one that I think is particularly ridiculous. What happens after four pm when kids are still being driven to their after school activities?

We cannot ignore the statistics. Annual expenditure on gambling among teenagers is estimated at $230 million. The bill also fails to ban inducements. These are the bonus bets, the deposit matches, the cash-back offers and the so-called risk-free bets. They include the VIP incentives, such as interstate flights to events and being wined and dined in company marquees and boxes. Inducements are strategically designed by marketing professionals to encourage impulsive behaviour, reduce the perceived risk of gambling and keep vulnerable people engaged in gambling for longer. Research published in the Journal of Behavioural Addictions has documented their link to gambling harm, finding that inducements increase betting expenditure, significantly reduce the number of people who choose not to bet, increase the proportion of bad bets and disproportionately affect people experiencing gambling problems. It's no wonder the gambling industry has fought so hard to retain them. During last week's Senate inquiry into this bill, we also heard even more serious allegations about the extreme practices used by the industry VIP account managers, including allegedly offering illegal inducements such as drugs and escorts. The companies named have rejected those allegations. Inducements are effective at keeping people addicted to gambling. They are predatory, and they target those who are most vulnerable.

Let's move on to the opt-out model for online advertising, noting that the recommendation of public health experts was for a complete phase-out of all gambling ads, regardless. We've heard a lot from the government extolling the virtues of the opt-out system, but we know from experience what a weak measure this is. Using SBS On Demand as an example, only about 0.2 per cent of users have taken up the opt-out measure on their platform. If the objective is to genuinely reduce gambling harm, the evidence tells us that we should instead be adopting an opt-in approach where gambling activity can only occur once a person has actively made a conscious decision to participate.

Additionally, gambling safeguards should not depend on a person recognising they are already in trouble. Gambling harm often develops gradually and, by the time someone decides to opt out, significant financial, emotional and family harm may already have occurred. It's abundantly clear that the government's proposed reforms in this bill will not stop our children from being exposed regularly to gambling advertising and that vulnerable people will not be protected from predatory industry practices that aim to keep them gambling and keep them addicted.

Finally, there's no national regulator provided for in this bill. Regulation, to date, has been entirely ineffective in Australia. Each state and territory has its own regulator, and the Northern Territory Racing Commission has become the de facto regulator for online wagering companies because it has the lowest tax settings and the weakest regulations. This is despite organisations such as the Alliance for Gambling Reform consistently calling for stronger regulatory powers to ensure the industry is held to account and that public health, rather than industry interests, is placed at the centre of our policy making.

With so many vivid and harrowing testimonies of harm and suffering due to gambling heard at the inquiry, coupled with the strong evidence about which measures will actually be effective in helping to fix the problem, it is incredibly difficult to understand how on earth the government could ignore the 31 recommendations of the Murphy report and instead propose such a weak and limited response—that is, as my colleague mentioned, until you follow the money. The Labor Party collected more than $4.4 million in gambling donations over five years, including $1.5 million around the last election. We know that in 2024 at least 19 federal politicians across both Labor and the coalition accepted gifts from Tabcorp and Sportsbet to attend major sporting events. This included the Nationals leader and the current shadow health minister. We heard about the lavish birthday party for the minister responsible for gambling at the time, which was hosted by the peak industry body. Then there's the powerful influence of lobbyists, people such as the former Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy, who, after politics, became the CEO of the peak industry body for Australian gambling companies. There is also the former New South Wales Liberal premier Barry O'Farrell, who was the CEO of Racing Australia. These are just a few of the long line of former politicians and political advisers touting for the gambling industry.

Research published by academics at the universities of Melbourne and Queensland found gambling beat out the alcohol, tobacco and food industries in terms of the number of third-party lobbying firms hired. To quote from the Grattan Institute's report, 'Big gambling is playing with our democracy through heavy political donations, intensive lobbying and close personal relationships with decision-makers.' Big gambling protects its profits at the public's expense. We need to end donations from harmful industries like the gambling industry.

Australia led the world on tobacco advertising bans, and smoking rates fell dramatically. And we have strong protections in place for our children from tobacco and alcohol marketing. We must now show the same conviction. We know what needs to be done—it's laid out in the Murphy report. This bill merely tinkers around the edges. It tries to have a bet each way, promising action for Australians harmed by gambling, while shielding the industry from meaningful reform. I cannot in good conscience support this bill. I say to the government: listen to the evidence, back real reform and stand up for Australian families. Let's end all gambling advertising and inducements now.

12 August 2026