Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, National Self-exclusion Register (Cost Recovery Levy) Amendment Bill 2026
Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (12:10): There's a saying in politics, and that is that you shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. With the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, though, I feel like it's 'Don't let the woefully inadequate be the enemy of the good.' I've got to say that I'm torn between supporting this inadequate legislation and voting it down, which is warranted, but this would result in potentially more damage and a further lack of action.
This underwhelming bill puts members like me who care about the harm that gambling causes, who care about their constituents, between a rock and a hard place. It's galling to know that eventually this legislation will pass, and it's galling to know that so many in government are going to be high-fiving each other—'Look what we did. We fixed gambling harm'—when you didn't, when you won't, when you have for so long ignored the recommendations of the Murphy report.
It's so galling to think of the late Peta Murphy and the tremendous work that she did in this place in such a short period of time, knowing how terribly sick she was in those last months and how she still kept coming in here, knowing her time was finite, because she thought that tabling the report was important. She thought it would make a difference. On the one hand, we have what's known as the Murphy report.
What we had was unanimous bipartisan support from the government, from the coalition and from independent members who were on that committee, which found that gambling was harming Australians, and then we continue to do so without a concerted effort to address gambling harm. The committee made 31 recommendations to reduce gambling harm, including a phase-in of a complete ban of advertising of online gambling, a minister and national regulator dedicated to reducing gambling harm and a public health priority and a banning of predatory inducements.
On the other hand, what do we have? We've had pressure from the major sporting codes and broadcasters that profit and will continue to profit directly from gambling. The Australian Football League reported a net profit of $45.4 million in 2024 with a reported betting agency income of around $30 million—$30 million the AFL got from their loyal fans that turn up every day that are so induced to bet.
I think of when I was a young person and watching sport. I think of when I was a child and watching sport and then what our children have to be subjected to today—the constant bombardment of betting advertising. It just never ends.
It's pernicious. I think of the National Rugby League, which earned $744.9 million in revenue in 2024, with an operating surplus of around $62 million, and which reportedly earned around $50 million of its revenue from betting agencies. The major broadcasters profit from around $239 million worth of advertising online and on metropolitan radio.
State governments benefit from gambling taxes and groups like the Canberra Labor Club, whose gambling revenue from pokies benefits the Labor Party. It's really quite obscene that we have a political party in Australia that has pokie machines. It was reported there were gambling donations of more than $4 million over five years, including $1.5 million in the last election and a Labor fundraiser hosted by pokies and hospitality company Endeavour Group on the fringe of Labor's National Conference in 2026, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It's devastatingly easy to see that the Murphy report's recommendations are being sacrificed by the government on the altar of gambling, sporting and broadcasting profits. A side-by-side comparison of the government's reforms and the Murphy report's recommendations shows that the bill responds to only three of 31 recommendations—that's under 10 per cent—and only responds partially to two out of three of those.
In the absence of meaningful action, gambling harm has continued largely unabated during the more than 1,140 days since the Murphy report was handed down. The harms caused and exacerbated by gambling have continued, and they include family and relationship breakdown, unemployment, poverty, crime, family and domestic violence, elder abuse—one in six older Australians experience elder abuse, and a significant proportion of that is because their children and their grandchildren are seeking money from grandma and grandpa to try and cover debts from gambling—and gambling related suicide.
Gambling losses in Australia are now estimated to be $36 billion every year, more than $95 million every single day. That's according to the Australia Institute. Thirty-six billion dollars equates to more than $1,290 in losses for every man, woman and child in Australia.
It's one way that we lead across the world: we have the highest rate of gambling losses on a per capita basis in the world. I—and no doubt many other members in this place—have heard from many of those impacted. My constituents and Australians from across the nation have been begging for meaningful gambling reform, in particular further restrictions on gambling advertising and inducements.
While strengthening BetStop was helpful—at every opportunity, when the government are asked about a question around the Murphy report or gambling harm, they talk about it—that's a voluntary service, which those suffering the most gambling harm may not be able to engage with for a variety of reasons. The reforms proposed in this bill are piecemeal at best and based on industry preferences rather than respectable research and what we really should be doing in this place.
If we're all here to make a better Australia, we're failing today. I've never been more reluctant when deciding how to vote on a bill. Without some of the lodged amendments being passed, this bill can only be seen as a missed opportunity to implement the vision of the late, brave former member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy, and the committee report from the inquiry that she chaired with fellow members, many of whom are still in this place, that was handed down well over a thousand days ago.
Vale, Peta Murphy, and vale, your excellent work, barely 10 per cent of which is being implemented by government, a government that she so loyally served. What's particularly galling is knowing that we're not going to address gambling reform again in this place, certainly not in this parliament and probably not in the next or the one after, because there'll be a big tick next to gambling reform that that's being fixed.
We have a duty in this place—we have a duty to our children; we have a duty to children who have not been born; we have a duty to vulnerable Australians; we have a duty to current and future Australia—and today, very sadly, we've squibbed it. I just hope that the government consider the needs of vulnerable Australians—in fact, all Australians—over codes, over news channels and over their own self-interests in taking gambling donations and actually truly address and bring to this parliament legislation that addresses all 31 recommendations.