JOURNALIST: Can you confirm whether the gambling legislation is going through on Wednesday or Thursday?

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND SPORT ANIKA WELLS: We’ve said that it’s a priority of the government. We will introduce it this week.

JOURNALIST: Is the government open to having a Senate inquiry into the bill over the winter break?

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND SPORT ANIKA WELLS: Obviously as a House member I defer to the Socratic wonder of the Senate on that, but that would be the usual run of events and if that's what happens, we understand that.

JOURNALIST: But the Greens are suggesting industry are opposed to that. That wouldn't factor into the government's broader thinking about whether to have an inquiry or not?

WELLS: The industry have entrenched views about this on lots of different elements of it, and that doesn’t surprise me to hear that, but it would not be part of our government decision making.

JOURNALIST: The Greens want the social media ban amendments to go to the Senate inquiry as well. Is that something you'd be open to- the government - would be open to supporting?

WELLS: I want this legislation through because I want the eSafety Commissioner to have enhanced powers so that she can get her enforcement action into court. I think we've all heard pretty clearly from the Australian public they want to see some accountability, and so every day we delay, we're delaying accountability.

JOURNALIST: Would it be disappointing if that court action is delayed because of this inquiry that they're pushing for?

WELLS: If we had to delay taking big tech to court for doing the wrong thing by Australian kids and parents because of a Senate inquiry initiated by the Greens, yes, that would be disappointing.

JOURNALIST: There's growing momentum to address broader harms caused by algorithms, not just for younger people, things like opt-out of algorithms. Is that something the government would be open to looking at here?

WELLS: Yeah, and you would have seen I've already acted to factor that into where I'm going with digital duty of care. We focus on functions and features of these systems rather than content. And we talked about adding algorithms in when I added particulars into the rules earlier this year, those four main features about endless scroll, the algorithm, about disappearing messages and about toxic popularity metres. So I would point to that as action, that we are already considering that, but it will be a big part of what digital duty of care looks like in the second half of the year.

JOURNALIST: There seems to be support for the gambling reforms to go further than they are. Why aren't you pushing them further if it does have that backing?

WELLS: I would say that there are very entrenched views on both sides of that debate. And while the Albanese Government is very committed to reducing the harm of gambling, and that is a very significant package that the PM announced to the National Press Club in April, we are now focused on getting that done, getting that implemented, and I would say every day that gambling harm reduction advocates and their supporters in the Parliament argue for an extended Senate inquiry, further public inquiry, the other side of the fence uses that as a reason to delay implementation, and to me, delaying actual reform and actual implementation isn't worth further consultation on a piece that has been very publicly and prolifically discussed for three years.

JOURNALIST: Do you see this as a starting point then that could be strengthened in years to come?

WELLS: I would say that, we say in social policy the pen is never down. I used to say that in aged care as well. But now we've announced our response to the You win some, you lose more report, that is this package of measures and we're keen to legislate it as quickly as we can, so that we can make sure that it actually starts on 1 January.

JOURNALIST: Minister Wells, I understand you told caucus about the about BetStop campaign, is that going to be funded by industry?

WELLS: Yes, that's part of the reform package that we're announcing this week. Gambling companies will be levied to pay for a national advertising campaign to improve awareness about BetStop. At the moment we know BetStop is the most effective thing to helping people suffering from the harms of gambling to reducing their practice, but only one in three people who made a punt in the last 12 months actually know about it, so that's about building that awareness.

Part of the reform package also speaks to banning pocket pokies and addressing things that are being currently a bit unregulated like online lotteries, overseas lotteries, where there are no consumer protections for Australian users. So, that all forms part of the package that we want to legislate and put in place for 1 January.

JOURNALIST: Will that campaign be ongoing or is it a one-off spend?

WELLS: Well, let’s see how it gets through the Parliament first. But our intention is to raise awareness of BetStop, so that’s the policy intention.

JOURNALIST: Minister Wells, why did you fail to disclose your husband’s role at SEC Newgate in the last term of parliament?

WELLS: I disclosed it in 2019, and my register of interest is completely up to date.