Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, National Self-exclusion Register (Cost Recovery Levy) Amendment Bill 2026

Ms WITTY (Melbourne) (12:20): I rise to speak in support of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026. I want to begin with a story from a father in Melbourne who contacted my office. He told me about his 12-year-old son, a basketball fanatic, a kid who loves sport.

Like many families, they spend time together watching games, following players and talking about results. His family has also experienced the devastating impact of gambling addiction. What worried him was not what was happening on the court.

What worried him was what was happening in the advertising breaks. He described game after game where gambling advertising appeared again and again, so often that they became part of the experience of watching sport itself. One part of his story in particular has stayed with me.

His son saw an advertisement connected to sports statistics and said he would like to use it because he enjoyed analysing teams and players. The father could see how easily a love of sport could be turned into something else. Another parent contacted me with a similar concern.

He has two young boys who love footy and cricket. He told me they had started asking questions about getting betting odds and gambling markets, not because they were looking for gambling content but because gambling content kept finding them. He spoke about what felt like a constant stream of gambling promotions attached to the sports his children loved.

Most of all, he spoke as a parent. He spoke about feeling powerless to stop it. Parents should not have to carry that burden on their own.

Children should be able to enjoy sport as children. They should be able to follow their favourite players, support their team and celebrate a win without being drawn into a conversation about gambling. Those conversations with Melbourne families have stayed with me, and they are why the Albanese Labor government is acting.

This government is taking steps to reduce children's exposure to gambling advertising, break the connection between sport and wagering, and help ensure families can enjoy sport without gambling companies competing for their attention. One of the first stakeholder events I attended in Parliament House focused on gambling harm and gambling advertising. I was new to this place and a little bit unsure about what went on.

I went into a committee room to see some people up on the screen. The people on the screen then shared their stories. One was a young man who was addicted to gambling and had lots of different gambling companies giving him free bets and free things to induce him to keep gambling.

But what really stood out to me were the two young women who were there. They looked quite distressed. When they started to speak, I really began to understand why.

They told of their brother—one of the sisters told of their brother; the other was just holding her—who had a gambling addiction that got out of hand and, eventually, he killed himself. You could see the pain on the face of the two sisters as they described their brother. This was something that I never even thought about until hearing those stories.

When we debate legislation in this place, it is easy to focus on clauses, schedules and technical provisions. Behind every reform are real people: people trying to rebuild their lives; parents trying to protect their children; families dealing with financial pressure, mental health challenges, relationship breakdowns and the stress that gambling harm can cause.

That reality is reflected in my own community. Across the city of Melbourne, Yarra and Stonnington, more than $150 million was lost on pokie machines alone in the last financial year. That is a staggering amount of money—money that could have gone towards rent, money that could have gone towards groceries, money that could have gone towards school costs, savings or everyday household expenses.

Every dollar lost tells part of the story. The greater story is the impact that gambling harm has on families and communities. In Melbourne, we are fortunate to have organisations such as Turning Point working every day to reduce gambling harm in our community.

Turning Point provides treatment and counselling services, supports people and families affected by gambling harm, conducts leading research and helps build the evidence that informs better public policy. I've met with their team and heard firsthand about the experiences of people seeking support and trying to regain financial stability, repair relationships and rebuild confidence in their lives.

Their continued work in my community shows how gambling harm rarely affects just one person; it affects partners, children, parents and entire families. The people working on the front line see those impacts every day. They also see the difference that prevention, education, early intervention and support can make.

Their experience reinforces why measures that reduce exposure to gambling advertising, particularly for children and young people, are so important. For too many Australians, gambling advertising has become deeply embedded in the way sport is consumed. As representatives of our community, we hear the growing concern about the sheer volume of gambling advertising appearing across television, streaming services, social media platforms, podcasts, online services and radio broadcasts.

Many Australians have felt there is simply no escape from it. The parents who contacted my office were asking for their children to be able to enjoy sport without constant exposure to gambling promotions. They were asking for some balance to be restored, and that is what this legislation will do.

The Albanese Labor government's reforms are built around a simple principle: Australians should have more control over where and how they are exposed to gambling advertising. Children should not be the audience of gambling companies, sport should not be a pathway into gambling and families should be able to enjoy time together without being overwhelmed by gambling promotions.

The reforms in the main bill take practical action to achieve that. From 1 January next year, Australians will be able to sit down and watch live sport without the level of gambling advertising that has become normalised over recent years. The main bill bans gambling advertising during live sport broadcasts on television between 6 am and 8.30 pm.

Outside live sports, a cap will apply so that no more than three gambling advertisements can be shown per hour during that time. The main bill also tackles advertising where many children and young people increasingly spend their time online across digital platforms, social media and news websites. These reforms reduce the reach of gambling advertising across the online environment while giving Australians greater control over what they are exposed to.

The legislation also bans gambling promotions by celebrities, athletes and influencers. That is an important change. Supporting heroes and online personalities have significant influence, particularly with young Australians.

That influence should not be used to encourage gambling activity. The main bill ends that practice. The legislation also removes gambling advertising from sporting environments themselves.

Stadium advertising will be banned. Jersey advertising will be banned. These reforms help restore a clear separation between sport and wagering.

When children pull on a sporting jumper, the focus should be on the team they support. When families attend a game, the focus should be on the players on the field. The focus should be on the sport itself.

The bill also bans gambling advertising on radio during school drop-off and pick-up times. That is another practical reform aimed at reducing children's exposure to gambling promotions during key parts of the day. At every step, the goal is straightforward: reduce exposure; reduce saturation; reduce harm.

The bill also contains important reforms beyond advertising. One of those reforms strengthens BetStop, Australia's National Self-Exclusion Register. Since its launch, thousands of Australians have used BetStop as part of their recovery from gambling.

This legislation strengthens those protections. It improves the operations of the register. It reduces opportunities for unwanted marketing.

It helps ensure that Australians who have made the decision to exclude themselves from gambling receive stronger support. The bill also strengthens efforts to combat illegal offshore gambling operators. Those operators sit outside Australia's regulatory framework and consumer protections.

The reforms provide stronger tools to disrupt their activities and reduce the harm they can cause. The legislation also addresses emerging gambling products that present significant risks. One example is online keno.

These products can operate at an extraordinary speed and carry a significant capacity for harm. The government will ban online keno through these reforms. The bill also addresses foreign matched lotteries.

These schemes rely on loopholes that allow providers to act as the intermediaries of overseas lottery purchases. Closing those loopholes will strengthen consumer protections and help protect legitimate Australian lottery operators, including organisations that support community activity and charity work. The legislation also cracks down on fake trade promotion lotteries.

These operators have been able to exploit regulatory gaps while operating outside the standard expected of licensed lottery providers. Charities have raised serious concerns about the impact these arrangements are having on legitimate fundraising activities. This bill closes those loopholes and strengthens protections for consumers and community organisations.

Real progress on gambling harm comes from many people working together. It comes from families having difficult conversations around kitchen tables. It comes from community organisations supporting people through recovery.

It comes from advocates sharing their lived experience. It comes from governments being prepared to act. This legislation is an important part of that broader effort.

It sits alongside the work being done every day by health professionals, community organisations, sporting bodies, families and people with lived experience of gambling harm. Together, those efforts are helping build a culture where support is easier to find, protection is stronger and children are not exposed to the same level of gambling promotion as has become normalised over recent years.

As I prepared for this debate, I kept thinking about those parents who contacted my office; I thought about the father watching basketball with his son; I thought about the parent who told me that their young boy was already asking questions about odds while trying to watch footy and cricket. They wanted their children to enjoy sport as children. They wanted to sit down together as a family and watch a game without a constant stream of gambling promotions competing for their attention.

They wanted to know that someone was listening. Today, I want them to know that their voices have been heard. The reforms before the House take practical action to reduce children's exposure to gambling advertising.

They take practical action to break the connection between sport and wagering. They take practical action to give families greater confidence that the moments they share around sport are about the game itself. The stories that shaped my contribution to this debate did not come from boardrooms; they came from lounge rooms and kitchen tables, from parents doing their best to raise healthy, happy and confident young people.

Those are the voices I carry with me from Melbourne, and those are the families I am thinking about as I support this legislation. I commend the bill to the House.