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Nicolette Boele MP: Gambling harm is killing people. When will the PM finally take action and keep Australians safe?

 

Australia led the world with cigarette plain packaging laws. We also led the world with the social media ban. But Australia is also the world leader in gambling harm, with the highest per capita gambling losses in the world. Plain packaging, the social media ban.

Labor governments have shown us that they can get these hard but important things done. Prime Minister, gambling harm is killing people. When will you finally take real action and keep Australians safe?

Call to the Prime Minister.

I thank the member for Bradfield for her question and I acknowledge as part of that question her welcome acknowledgement that it is always Labor governments that do the big things, that do the big reforms that change the country for the better. And that is what we do, Mr. Speaker. That is what we do, and I thank the member for Bradfield for acknowledging that.

Now, when it comes to gambling, we've done more than any other government to tackle online gambling harms. Can I move a point of order, Mr. Speaker?

Order. I'd like the House to return to order. Prime Minister, we're continuing to consult with stakeholders on this important issue because we know that there's more needs to be done. We're focused on addressing three key priorities when it comes to gambling. The first is minimizing children's exposure to wagering advertising. The second is breaking the connection between wagering and sport. And the third is reducing the saturation and targeting of wagering advertising.

Further reforms will build on the work that we've done up to this point, where we have launched the national self-exclusion register, BetStop. Just as one example, there have now been 58,000 total registrations. 36,000 of those are currently active. 38% of those people have chosen a lifetime ban, and 81% of the registrants said they have completely stopped betting on sports or racing events, and 15% said they had reduced it. Four in five people who've registered for self-exclusion have since experienced a better overall quality of life, and 79% say that their mental health has got better as a direct result of that.

We know that BetStop is working, and we know as well that more needs to be done. We also need to acknowledge something that hasn't been part of a lot of the public discourse here: problem gambling's greatest issue is overwhelmingly poker machines. Second on the list, and a growing area, is the issue of lotteries or keno, and various forms including on devices, which give people far greater access.

One of the things that we also need to acknowledge, because this is an economic issue as well, is that offshore sites are a major issue, with money being suctioned overseas by these companies. The government is examining what we can do to deal with those overseas sites that are causing harm and are completely unregulated because of the nature of them being overseas.

So these issues aren't simple, but the government is working each and every day to make sure that we continue to make a difference. And I'll continue to report on further reforms.

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