Prime Minister Anthony Albanese finally announced some gambling advertising reform this week, tucked into the end of a speech to the National Press Club with a principal focus on Australia’s response to the fallout from the war in Iran, the day after he appeared on national television networks telling Australians not to panic.
Three years on from the late Labor MP Peta Murphy’s landmark report containing 31 clear recommendations to do something about a destructive industry out of control, the government has decided to instead introduce a few modest reforms.
Albo’s social media people immediately posted a message saying, ‘We’re cutting gambling ads on TV, radio, online and on the field’, but the truth is that these changes don’t even go as far in addressing Peta Murphy’s concerns as the earlier, heavily criticised model flagged by former communications minister Anika Wells.
What’s on the table?
In the prime minister’s words, ‘Between 6am and 8:30pm we will cap the number of TV ads for betting agencies at a maximum of three per hour. We will ban all gambling ads on radio during school pick up and drop off. We will ban cross-promotion content that mixes commentary with odds, end advertising on jerseys and jumpers and in stadiums, and ban online advertising unless the user is verified as being over 18 and has the ability to opt out.
‘Just as importantly, we will block illegal offshore gaming sites and ban online keno type products, the so called “pocket pokies”, which represent a huge percentage of Australian gambling losses. And we will keep building on the success of Betstop, promoting and strengthening a program that is changing lives.’
According to Albo, ‘We are getting the balance right, letting adults have a punt if they want to, but making sure that our children don’t see betting ads everywhere they look.’
The government’s formal response to the Murphy report is now set to be tabled on 12 May, where it can reliably expect to be buried under reporting on the federal budget, to be announced on the same day.
Response
Tim Costello, the chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, called Albo’s latest plan a ‘timid response’, while noting that something was better than nothing, particularly where vulnerable children were concerned.
‘In a nation that has the greatest gambling harm in the world, at least we have had a response,’ he said.
Independent MP Kate Chaney has a long-standing interest in the issue, and was on the Murphy committee. She described the government’s belated response as ‘big on talk, small on substance…
‘It appears to have been designed to give certainty to powerful vested interests rather than to reduce harm to the many Australians suffering from the impacts of gambling addiction’, Chaney said.
Firebrand ACT senator and former Wallaby David Pocock agreed, saying the proposed changes would not ‘reverse the rampant normalisation of gambling as an inseparable part of sport.’
Associate Professor Julian Rait of the Australian Medical Association said, ‘Gambling addiction is a serious health issue linked to mental illness, substance abuse, family breakdowns and severe financial distress. The changes announced today are a step in the right direction, but they are not the strong, comprehensive response Australians need and deserve.’
Kick in the guts
The cynically named lobby group for the gambling industry, Responsible Wagering Australia, stopped rubbing their hands with glee long enough to publicly call the changes ‘draconian’ and a ‘kick in the guts’.
At the National Press Club, Anthony Albanese was asked to explain why the great majority of the harm minimisation recommendations in the Murphy report had been ignored. Instead of being honest, and saying he was terrified of the gambling lobby, the prime minister suggested more reform might be coming in future. ‘Government can be informed by committees, but the government determines positions,’ he huffed.
Acknowledging that nothing had yet been done about poker machines (responsible for half of the problem gambling in the country), Albo claimed the government’s position was still evolving: ‘The Murphy report isn’t when it started and ended,’ he said.
Perhaps in another three years we might expect another hastily cobbled together announcement on problem gambling, that is if Australia survives its alliance with the warmongers Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Mad Max scenario they are currently cooking up for us all as a response to their own considerable political failings.
Feeling lucky?
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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