The Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, will join Kristie Johnston MP to comment on Ms Johnston’s Gambling Control Amendment (Dealing with Stolen Money) Bill 2025.
I applaud Kristie Johnston for the introduction of her Gambling Control Amendment Bill to the Tasmanian Parliament. It is a crucial piece of legislation that constitutes the latest instalment of a national campaign that I am heading to reduce the harmful impact of gambling addiction on the community.
Similar bills are being introduced in NSW by Helen Dalton MP, and also in South Australia and the Northern Territory. At a federal level I have introduced my Making Gambling Businesses Accountable Bill three times – in 2020, 2022 and again last year. I am not going to let this go.
In essence, the bills require gambling companies to return money that has been stolen and then lost to gambling, to the victims of the theft. My bill also places a positive onus on gambling companies to satisfy themselves that money being gambled is not stolen, and for the Federal Court to order the money to be returned to the victims of crime.
It is paramount that both state and federal governments prevent gambling companies from profiting from the proceeds of crime, and that the governments are not themselves accessories by enabling this to happen.