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

Ms CHESTERS (Bendigo) (10:11): We stand here today with a comprehensive set of reforms before us. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the work that's gone into the legislation that's before us. I've been in the parliament for 13 years now.

I've had lots of opportunities to be the chair and deputy chair of House committees, prepared lots of reports with lots of recommendations. I want to address this issue up front. When you present a report to the parliament from a House committee, there are recommendations; they are a couple of sentences.

But to turn sentences into legislation does take time in this place and I want to acknowledge that. Quite a lot of the feedback that I've got in my electorate has been: why is it taking so long? To turn a couple of sentences in a recommendation into legislation does take time regardless of the report.

In the previous government, we did lots of reports on education reform and, out of respect, the then government looked at them. This government responded to some of those reports and they were tabled in this parliament. This isn't lost between governments; it's picked up by other ministers.

But I want to put up front that it does take a lot to turn a report and recommendations into legislation and that consultation has happened in a genuine way. The reforms that we have in front of us address the concerns our community has, that there's been a disconnect, that harm is now being done to children and others through online gambling, that there's been a change in the way in which gambling interacts with everyday life and, in particular, sport.

The changes that are before us today will return us to the situation where families and children can engage in sport, grow up watching the game that they love without thinking about gambling and without it being imposed on them at the same time. The changes before us minimise the exposure to harm of wagering advertising, break the link between sport and wagering, and reduce the saturation and targeting of wagering advertising.

What has shifted in the 20 or 30 years is the change in technology, and these laws are trying to keep up with that change. We can walk around with a phone in our pocket which is constantly pushing advertising and gambling to us. Streaming and online services have changed the nature of advertising.

I want to acknowledge all the people in my electorate who've written to me and raised this concern, from local branch members to local welfare groups to individuals who share their own story—their story of gambling, their story of their son being addicted to gambling or their story of growing up in a household of gambling. I'm the daughter of a gambler. My experience in childhood was very different to others and to what they're experiencing today.

I remember being very young, and on Saturdays my afternoons were spent at the track—the racetrack—not like other kids. I remember learning mathematics through using the form guide. I remember that's how I did my times tables.

After my dad and I had done the delivery runs for our second-hand business, and we'd gone to all the things that we did on a Saturday morning, our daddy-daughter time was at the track. I think back now to that experience. I was the odd one out in the playground on a Monday when we reflected on what we did on the weekend.

Every other kid didn't go to the track with their dad. Every other kid didn't learn their times tables by writing down the late mail. Every other kid wasn't told that the betting ring wasn't safe for a young girl because daddy had to do the conversations with the bookmakers, but they could just roam around the track chatting to people.

I used to make up stories that my dad was a trainer so I wouldn't get so embarrassed. He wasn't. He was a gambler.

What changed was that our society could catch that kid, those girls, because there was only one in the playground that could understand the form guide and the betting odds. To this day, I can still talk about a quaddie or a quinella. I can still sit down, read the form guide and give you the best quinella picks you've got.

My partner laughs about it. He didn't grow up in a house like that. I still have a cathartic feeling when I hear the racing channel—which is bizarre and odd and shouldn't be the case—because I heard it so much as a young child.

My point is, whereas I was the only one in the playground, what we now have, because of the changing nature between sport and wagering, is more children talking about sporting odds and more children seeing it normalised. There was a period when you'd watch a rugby league match and heroes of rugby league in the eighties and nineties were doing a live cross and talking to people, saying, 'If you go to your betting app right now'—whichever one they were promoting—'you can put money on, you can get the odds about the first kick and who's going to get the first goal'— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Garland ): Sorry to interrupt, Member for Bendigo.

Member for Moncrieff, no phones are allowed in the chamber. Ms CHESTERS: and I can remember watching that, going: That's shifted. That's changed.

That shouldn't be happening. This is what this bill seeks to address. It's minimising the exposure of children to harm.

It's being able to watch that game without that interruption. I acknowledge some of the change that's already happened. As the member for Macnamara said, the AFL moved quickly and has taken the gambling around the stadium off.

It was always a shock to see that, and a recall memory for me to see that when we went there, because it didn't happen when we were younger. Banning it from shirts is a big step forward. It's breaking that normalisation of gambling for children so that families can enjoy watching football, watching sport, without that interruption.

With the bill that's before us, what we're trying to do is to ban ads on TV during live sport between 6 am and 8.30 pm and to put a cap on ads outside these hours of three per hour between 6 pm and 8 pm. The bill also seeks to ban gambling promotion by celebrities, athletes and influencers. Those heroes that I just spoke about are being used to target kids and youngsters, especially young men, but this bill aims to stop that.

We're banning advertising on stadiums and jerseys, which again seeks to normalise advertising. We're banning radio ads at drop-off and pick-up times. We're banning online advertising, except when users use the opt-out function that allows them to opt out of advertising and apply family-friendly settings.

I think back to the World Cup and how important it would be to make sure that families know that they can do that. The broader reforms in this bill haven't received the attention that they should. The banning of online keno—I talked about phones in this particular reform, which I so desperately want to see passed.

Phones just normalised it for so many young people. They could be shopping or at work, and then, all of a sudden, it pops up in their feed, and they give it a go. That shouldn't happen.

Our phones should be free of the availability to gamble. We're expanding and changing BetStop to make sure that it can help more people and to stop it being misused. We're changing the way foreign matched lotteries work and function.

We are tackling the illegal offshore gambling providers and reducing the impact of gambling harm to ensure that people participating in gambling in Australia do so with the safety of Australian consumer protections. I was shocked and horrified to hear through another committee, where we were looking at a treaty, about the influence and the way in which overseas gambling is having an impact on Australia, and it is good to see some of the recommendations of the treaties committee report being picked up and addressed with this legislation.

We are cracking down on fake lotteries operating under the pretence of trade promotion. I'm not saying that everybody engages with them, but the insidious way that they use Facebook, they use marketing apps, they use shopping apps—before you know it, you're hooked and part of a gambling app. These are just some of the many legislation reforms that are here, and they are an incredibly important step to go forward.

We do not want a case where gambling continues to be normalised for children. This is a huge step forward, and I want to really say that to the people in my community. This is about those young men and women at the Lake View Hotel or at the All Seasons after work, making sure that, if they want to have a bet, it's done safely and they're not being chased by gambling throughout their work day.

This is about making sure that families can watch their football or their sporting without being bombarded by ads. This is about ensuring that we're supporting those children, that not more kids are talking about gambling ads, that more kids are not talking about betting or learning about our capitals based upon where racetracks may be, and that they're not learning their times tables or how to do mathematics by being able to understand the form guide.

We can catch those one or two kids that might become problem gamblers if it is that simple, if it is that one or two. But, when it becomes a classroom, it becomes so much harder for us as a community to catch. This is about making sure that the next generation isn't being chased by gambling on their phone.

Gambling breaks families. It's insidious. Gambling addiction is one of the hardest things for people to break.

I can remember the words of my father over and over again: 'Just one more bet. This one will get us out. Just one more bet.' I can remember the way in which my mum would try and hide money, the way in which we as girls would beg him not to go, and the nights that we lost travelling to cities to go to racetracks or to different gambling opportunities.

I've never put money in a poker machine. I had a Sportsbet account at one stage because I was always interested in the odds at election time, but I'm not a gambler. I think it's because I grew up in a household with a problem gambler, and I don't want any child to have that experience.

What we can do in this bill is find the balance and restore the balance. We can minimise children's exposure to harmful wagering advertising. We can break the link between sport and wagering and restore that love of the game without being bombarded.

We can reduce the risk and targeting of wagering in advertising and ensure that that great pastime remains a great pastime for people and doesn't chase them when they wake up in the morning, when they're at home or when they're in the workplace; that it's done in a safe way; and that, if they need help, they can get help.