On 25 May 2026, I gave a Speech on the Gambling Lobby.
Transcript:
Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan)
Here’s something the government doesn’t want you to know.
They’re so embarrassed by it they released it on the afternoon of the budget - right when all the journalists couldn’t access their phones in budget lock-up.
It was the government response to a key gambling report that recommended banning online gambling advertising, which they had been sitting on for literal years.
I’d be embarrassed too if I completely capitulated to the gambling lobby on an issue that costs Australians $32 billion a year and countless lives and livelihoods. I’d be embarrassed if I completely capitulated on an issue that unites almost all Australians - we’re sick of gambling ads and we’re sick of the effect they’re having on our society.
That almost $3m to the major parties in donations over the last decade, from the gambling lobby, has really paid off. Including to Labor, in government, setting the very regulations the industry is subject to. Who are they governing for again, the Australian people, or the gambling lobby?
No, Labor instead has done a token set of reforms, purely so they can say they’ve done something. It’s pretty clear that’s what they were going for. Some restrictions on specific timeslots and types of broadcasts - which will just shift more ads into other, unrestricted slots. The government’s own modelling says these reforms will only reduce gambling by 0.8% - I’m sure the gambling companies are okay with that.
It’s shameful isn’t it, that this is the state of our democracy. But I do have hope. Because the government clearly does feel like they need to respond to pressure - that’s why they’re doing things that they think sound good, even if they don’t actually fix anything. That means that if our voices are collectively louder than the gas lobby, than the gambling lobby, then we can get real change.