On 12 Aug 2026, I gave a Speech on Gambling

Transcript:

Ms WATSON-BROWN:

Thank you Deputy Speaker.

This bill wastes a generational opportunity to improve our gambling laws. The Greens just can't vote for the Bill in its current form. I move the second reading amendment to this bill as circulated in my name.

The Government is responsible for safeguarding the Australian public from harm, including the serious harms caused by gambling. That is ultimately, fundamentally what we are discussing and debating in this place today. This government’s responsibility to everyday people- to all Australians.

But how can the Government seriously consider reform to the gambling industry when they refuse to acknowledge, let alone address, the influence of the gambling lobby.

Meaningful action on gambling reform cannot occur without addressing the pervasive and insidious influence that corporate donations, that corporate access, have on politics and policy.

The harmful impacts of gambling on physical and mental health are absolutely beyond doubt. 
For years Australians have been the biggest gamblers in the world per capita. 
And we know this problem is getting worse, with Australians losing $36 billion to gambling last year.

Genuine gambling reform must take aim at the industry’s most harmful practices - including their predatory online advertising and inducements.

This bill takes no action on inducements, it fails to create a national regulator, and actively weakens advertising restrictions on online streaming.

This bill ignores most of the Murphy Report’s recommendations. It includes carve outs and special deals for big gambling companies. This Bill is riddled with loopholes, and must be amended if it is to make the positive difference we all so urgently need.

Prime Minister, is the gambling lobby in the room with you right now? Have they been shaping the government’s gambling reform laws?

Three in four Australians support a total ban on gambling ads. Four in five Australians support banning gambling ads on social media, online, in stadiums, and on players’ uniforms.

Nearly four in five Australians agree that Government policies should aim to reduce the time people spend on gambling. And nearly nine in ten Australians, nearly 90% of Australians, support banning gambling ads during prime time TV hours for families and children.

And yet when looking at the Government’s proposed gambling reform laws, it’s clear the wishes and best interests of the Australian people were not their primary concern.

Perhaps, if you can believe it, there might have been another set of interests influencing their decision-making. The interests of possibly the gambling lobby.

Putting their finger on the scales, directing the government and ensuring the gambling industry avoids proper regulation, scrutiny, and consequences.

Could it have something to do with the Labor Government accepting $4 million in donations from the gambling industry in the last several years? Could it? Could it possibly?

When it comes to gambling reform in Australia, it seems the house always wins.

You vote, corporations don’t. So why is it that corporations keep having more say than all of us?

Why is it that this Labor government, that promised change, that promised integrity, is giving us more of the same? Just the latest in a decades-long series of governments who sell out everyday Australians.

You’re the voter. Thank you chair- Australians are the voters. But it’s gambling corporation execs who sit at long, fancy dinners with government Ministers. So it’s gambling execs who get to make sure Labor’s advertising laws are weak and ineffectual.

Australians are the voters. Well it is a desperate situation we're talking about here, people are dying. They're losing their livelihoods and their lives. I think it's serious. But it’s gas corporations who funnel millions in donations to the election campaigns of the major parties. So these corporations get our gas for free - and don’t pay any tax!

Australians are the voters - ordinary people. But it’s the AI companies who have multi-million dollar sophisticated lobbying operations. So it’s AI companies that get their destructive data centres fast-tracked with little to no regulation or public control.

Australians vote. Corporations don’t. So here’s the thing. 
We can change this. And it starts by electing people who don’t take money from big corporations, who don’t do dinners with corporate execs and lobbyists – and who will stand on the side of everyday people.

Say what you will about us in the Greens - but we know who’s side we’re on.