Question Time Response - Gambling reform

Question: Federal Member for Banks, David Coleman:

My question is to the Minister for Communications: The Government has been sitting on its hands for 498 days since the former Member for Dunkley, the late Peta Murphy, handed down her report of the harm of gambling. They said she led the charge on reducing the harm caused by online gambling. When will this Government make a decision in relation to online gambling reforms - a decision very much on the minds of the Australian people?

Answer: Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland: 

I thank the Member for his question. Everyone in this place has constituents, everyone in this place knows someone who has been personally impacted by the scourge of what happens when people have addictive problems with gambling.

The fact is this is costing our economy some $25 billion a year. The Government is considering very carefully, and consorting widely, on the recommendations that is contained in the late Peta Murphy's report. It's important to note that there are issues in this report that go not only to issues of federal responsibility, but also to States and Territories, that is why we are doing this in a coordinated way and we are making good progress. 

Mr Speaker, it's interesting to hear some of the interjections from those opposite because if only the Leader of the Opposition had been a senior cabinet minister for 10 years in a government that could have done something about this.

Mr Speaker, a report was put out to ban the use of credit cards for online wagering. And what happened? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was up to us to implement it.

Mr Speaker, as we work through this, as an orderly Cabinet Government that consults with people, we will ensure that we satisfy three key areas: first - to ensure that children are protected. Secondly: to break that nexus between sport and online wagering because we know that under the previous government - and this goes to the issue of effectiveness, Mr Speaker - we know that under the previous government, when they tinkered with these rules, it resulted in an increase - an increase - in advertising. 

We will be forward-looking and comprehensive and we also want to ensure that we address that particular cohort that is at risk which is young men who are being targeted with that advertising to a saturation level. 

We are determined to get this right, we're determined that not only will this complement the many efforts that we have made in this area, including the implementation of BetStop which has seen over 20,000 people self exclude themselves. Again, Mr Speaker, this going to the issue of we had to pick this up from the National Consumer Protection Framework. It was not done. We have picked all these things up including the wagering ban, including making sure that we had been buried under the previous government, making sure it was implemented. We will get this right and we will get this done and it will have a measurable difference on gambling harms in this country.