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

Senator CADELL (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (17:54): I'd like to withdraw the amendment on sheet 3971 in my name, and I move the amendment on sheet 4008 to the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026: (1) Schedule 4, item 1, page 106 (lines 4 to 8), to be opposed. (2) Schedule 4, item 11, page 109 (line 9), omit subparagraph 8D(2)(a)(iii).

The TEMPORARY CHAIR ( Senator Ghosh ): Senator Cadell, I'm informed that we've already got a question before the chair, so I don't think you can move it. Senator CADELL: I shan't move it, then; I shall merely withdraw it. The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Thank you.

Senator CADELL: But I want to talk about the reasons that this is important. I think there's a lot of talk about the Murphy report and what has been watered down, which seems to be everything from the Murphy report except one thing, and that is the action on foreign matched lotteries. Even a part of the government response in February said that foreign matched lotteries and the regulation around them should be tightened up so they're part of BetStop—no credit cards—forming part of everything.

But someone with the right phone number, somewhere across Australia, got that and said, 'It's not good enough.' So, in between the recommendations, there's been an outright ban. The only thing that has got harder, from the report to the legislation, is the action on foreign matched lotteries, and it has a real effect. Everyone talks about this as a gambling restriction bill and everything like that, but it's also a case where friends in the right places get the right answers.

We have the Lottery Corporation, which runs the lottery—the one, as you would know, that's still owned by the state in every state except Western Australia, so maybe they were on the call—out there saying: 'We're trying to protect Australians. Who knows if they're going to get paid?' A question that Senator Hanson-Young was able to ask in the committee was: how do these people know they're going to get paid if there's an opt-out in there?

What they forgot was that the current CEO of the Lottery Corporation was the CEO of the Illinois Lottery in America, where some of these things are taken. He had to admit on the stand the next day that he has never not paid anyone, whether they were a corporation, an entity or whatever. He admitted that everyone always gets paid in the American lottery, but it was just an argument that was happy for them.

They also had to come forward about how they were protecting Australians, but they forgot page 71 of their 2025 annual report, where the Lottery Corporation actually states that they are seeking to increase licence value by using regulations and advocacy to restrict competition such as foreign matched lotteries. They forget to say they were out there saying that this is against newsagents, because the Australian lotteries and newsagents association were saying: 'No.

This is against our members. This is bad.' I phoned four newsagents in my own electorate—I didn't get the tape measure out, but they were probably the four closest to my home—and I asked them about it. Do you know what they said is the greatest threat to their business?

The Lottery Corporation—the people who are advocating to shut these foreign matched lotteries down. I said, 'Why?' It's all to do with your phone and your app. There used to be an app, the Lott app, on your phone, where, if you bought a ticket from your local newsagency and you scanned it, you could see if you were a winner or a loser.

You could take it back to the newsagency, you could get your winnings and you could put it on again if you wanted. You could decide not to put it on and instead buy a magazine or a chocolate—invest in your local business. But no.

No, no, no. In this 2025 annual report, it also talks about increasing yield. When you have return to player odds, when you have these things, the only way to increase yield is to lower your costs.

How do you lower your costs? You cut out the people that sell your product so you sell it yourself. On the app now, when you scan your ticket, you have to have an account.

You never used to need an account. You now have to have an account on your phone with the Lott to scan the ticket you bought in your newsagency. As soon as you scan it, if it's a winner, it will ask, 'Shall we put this money in your account for you?' It will not go back into the lottery.

It will not go back to your newsagent. Shall they take the money straightaway and put it on your online account? If you lose, it's 'play again.' They are cutting out the newsagencies.

They are cutting out small businesses all across Australia to improve their yield. They came to give testimony that it's all about protecting Australians, but their annual general report, given to the Australian stock exchange, said that it is about increasing the value of their licence and increasing the yield of their business. By coincidence, today they have reported their 2026 figures.

Now we know why. Profit's down 22 per cent. Profit's down 22 per cent for the Lottery Corporation, and they're talking about the same things in their annual general report today.

So, the only thing that gets tightened is the only thing that returns profitability, yield and value to one company: the Lottery Corporation. Also, maybe it's done for Western Australia. Who knows!

They've had this bad GST thing come out recently. Maybe this is a consequence, that we can't touch Premier Roger Cook's little bay in there. This is why this amendment that I will foreshadow, coming up later, is to make this a level playing field, to allow competition.

Without these foreign matched lotteries—and there are lots of other things, the trade lotteries and things like that, which I agree are rorts; get rid of those—there is no competition. There are no options for newsagents to turn to, to sell products, if you eliminate these things. If you eliminate competition with the one company that has the licence to sell this across Australia—bear in mind that the Lottery Office has a licence out of the Northern Treasury and employs 50 people.

I think the amendment is likely to go down, but I say to Jaclyn and I say to your staff: thank you for putting up this fight for small business, thank you for being strong and thank you for continuing to fight this good fight. I am sorry that we have lost it. I am sorry that you'll be letting your staff go over the next year, and I'm sorry that a big corporation that publishes their greed in their AGM and comes to a Senate hearing and tries to dress it up as something else has won this.

Australian small business deserves better. Australians deserve better. That is why my foreshadowed amendment would fix that if it was carried.

Let's not forget that the only thing that gets tightened from the Murphy report in this whole legislation is the one thing that delivers special profits to one corporation. I seek leave to withdraw the amendments in my name on sheet 3971. Leave granted.