Originally published in The Mercury, 20 August 2026.
The Federal Government’s gutless gambling legislation, rammed through Federal Parliament and touted as “the strongest reforms this country has ever seen”, is a source of great shame for both the Government and Opposition.
Despite what the Government claims, gambling reform remains serious unfinished business. And it’s an issue that haunts Anthony Albanese and the Labor party.
I should know. When I was first elected to the power-sharing parliament of 2010, poker machine reform was a negotiated condition of my support for the Gillard Government. We’d agreed on a harm-minimisation approach which would have limited losses and short-circuited some of the addictive nature of the pokies. Of course, there were some vested interests who had other ideas.
Anthony Albanese was the Manager of Government Business at the time. He had a front-row seat to the incredible financial and political pressure the clubs, pubs and gambling companies brought to bear on the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament across the country.
This pressure eventually led then Prime Minister Gillard to cave into the gambling lobby, break her agreement with me and ditch the reforms.
It was an unprincipled backdown by the Labor Party, but one that could be explained politically by the extremely tight numbers in the Parliament and the ferocious Opposition who were willing to campaign on anything to tear the Government down.
But if we fast-forward to today, the Labor party under Prime Minister Albanese has an historic majority, is facing a Federal Opposition in disarray, is in possession of a comprehensive blueprint for reform in the cross-party Murphy Report, and there is broad support across the public and parliament to at least ban gambling advertising. The Government has all they need to stand up to the gambling lobby.
I thought we could see a path towards genuine help for those whose lives are being devastated by gambling addiction. But I missed that what they truly lacked was courage. Gallingly, this week the Government and Opposition have teamed up to protect the interests of the gambling lobby yet again.
After much-lauded negotiations with the Opposition, the major parties arrived at a stitch-up. Minor tweaks and piecemeal amendments to the Government’s bad bill won’t address the wave of gambling harm that is washing over this country. It won’t protect children. It won’t break the nexus between gambling and sport. It won’t stop the suicides.
The job of an MP is to represent their community, not the predators in the gambling industry and their fellow travellers in the media companies and major sporting codes. It’s clearer now than ever that on this issue the major parties care only for their mates and the profits of these corporations.
We can’t take seriously the Government’s claim they’re progressing momentous reform. Since the Murphy Report landed over three years ago, they’ve prevaricated and delayed reform. All the while Australians have lost more than $108 billion dollars. Not gambled, lost.
Far worse, at least 400 people take their own lives each year because of gambling addiction, a figure that is likely underreported. So in other words, because of this Government’s inaction, well over a thousand Australians have been lost to suicide since the Report was handed down in 2023.
Frankly the Government, and the Opposition, should be more honest about who their legislation protects. It’s not the person who’s lost a loved one to suicide over gambling addiction; it’s not the people who had $8 million stolen by their financial adviser; and it’s not the kids watching the footy at 8.31pm, the very minute this bill decides they’re fair game to be groomed by a bombardment of gambling advertising.
Instead it protects the broadcasters, the sporting codes and the gambling companies. Huge companies making huge profits.
We also can’t take the Prime Minister seriously when he claims to be striking a balance by defending people’s right to have a punt. It was never the aim of those of us wanting reform to ban gambling, and to claim otherwise is downright misleading. We just want more effective harm minimisation measures, like banning gambling inducements and advertising, and establishing a national gambling regulator.
The evidence on gambling harm has been overwhelming for years. We know what works. We know what the community wants. We know the recommendations that need to be implemented. What has been lacking is political courage from a Government and an Opposition that have no care whatsoever for the shocking human toll of gambling addiction.
They should be deeply ashamed of themselves.