Doing nothing on gambling advertising isn’t enough for the Albanese Government; they want to ensure nobody does. What’s the scam?
The scam is that almost three years after the late Peta Murphy MP handed down her report, ‘‘You win some, you lose more’, the Government has done nothing.
Oh, actually, that’s not quite true; the Prime Minister and Minister Wells have been meeting with the big media organisations that benefit significantly from gambling advertising.
The Greens have a Bill before the Parliament, the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Ban Gambling Ads) Bill, that seeks to amend the Interactive Gambling Act to implement a comprehensive ban on online gambling advertisements across television, radio, online and print, using a three-year phase-in approach.
Yesterday, the Greens asked the Senate to refer its Bill to a Committee for scrutiny purposes and for input from the broader community.
Senator Katy Gallagher, the Manager of Government Business in the Senate, rose from her front bench seat and stated, “The government’s view is that this doesn’t need to be referred to a committee and that there has been plenty of time for these issues to be examined and further examined.”
Labor, supported by the Liberal Party, voted to stop the Committee referral. The National sided with the Greens, not supporting their Bill, but supporting the right for it to be subject to scrutiny.
The whole thing seems like one big scam on the families that are suffering, or will in future suffer, from this trade in misery.