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 DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory—Independent ACT Whip) (19:57): I only have a few questions left, and a couple on the ACMA. Your own impact analysis said that this partial ban that you've gone with will be more expensive and more time consuming to enforce because it's patchy, and that a full gambling ad ban, as recommended by the Murphy report, would be cheaper to enforce and have more benefit for Australians.

The ACMA and the department told us that the ACMA would be getting zero extra staff for ongoing compliance. They may get some for implementation, but then that will fade away from the forward estimates back to 12 staff to oversee everything that you've been telling us that they're going to do. Minister, is it still the case that the ACMA will be getting zero staff to manage ongoing compliance with the government's patchy ban?

Just as a reminder of the need for staffing, this is a regulator that failed to investigate a single breach of BetStop within 12 months and so couldn't fine Entain for 500 breaches of BetStop.