Tribune’s note

The Minister for Sport and Minister for Communications, Ms Wells, led the House's consideration-in-detail stage of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, moving a suite of government amendments that tighten online wagering advertising rules while rejecting several crossbench and opposition proposals. In Question Time the same day, she reinforced the same reform package and linked gambling-harm reduction to the government's sport investment agenda.

**Bill amendments and enforcement framework**

The Minister presented a supplementary explanatory memorandum and moved government amendments extending the pre-bet advertising blackout before live sport from five to fifteen minutes, shifting the early-morning advertising cut-off from 6:00 am to 5:00 am, and granting ACMA new powers to direct online content services hosting wagering advertising, backed by a civil penalty of 1,000 penalty units for non-compliance [TA-260818-house-3c50651fdca4:s006].

The bill imposes penalties of up to $364,000 for individuals and $1.6 million for corporations breaching the new advertising rules [TA-260818-house-3c50651fdca4:s054]. It bans commissions to staff or third parties for customer referrals, strengthens BetStop with mandatory information checks and a three-month exclusion period, and prohibits online wagering advertising unless triple-lock conditions are met — aged over 18, logged in, and not opted out.

A new Schedule 4A establishes Part 7D, covering inducement restrictions and a cost-recovery levy under the Interactive Gambling (Cost Recovery Levy) Act 2026.

**Cross-party dynamics and rejected amendments**

The Minister said the government secured bipartisan agreement with the coalition and held constructive discussions with the Greens. She rejected the Member for Kooyong's proposed regulatory reporting regime for sporting and cultural organisations with turnover above $50 million, arguing it fell outside the bill's purpose and would add unnecessary compliance burdens [TA-260818-house-3c50651fdca4:s051].

She declined to support amendments from the Member for Curtin, stating the bill already contained the sought measures. She expressed concerns about a proposed lottery model, recalling the coalition's 2018 ban on foreign lottery access. She noted that assigning the Health Minister as administrator of the Interactive Gambling Act is not a convention for portfolio responsibility.

**Question Time reinforcement**

In Question Time, the Minister reiterated the government's gambling reform package — the 14-day inducement ban after sign-up, three-month BetStop deregistration ban, commissions prohibition, 5:00 am advertising start, and 15-minute live-sport blackout [TA-260818-house-3c50651fdca4:s151]. She also highlighted the federal sports ministry's $500 million in sport funding and the $200 million Play Our Way program, which doubled regional sporting infrastructure investment [TA-260818-house-3c50651fdca4:s156].

The convergence of bill-stage amendments and Question Time messaging underscores the portfolio's unified push to frame gambling regulation and sport investment as complementary tools for community wellbeing.

Primary records (12)

The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.