Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Business of the house
Program
Please do not quote
Proof only
Program
That, under standing order 94(2), the order of the day, government business, relating to the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, be considered and completed by 7 pm on 20 May 2025.
It is an unusual day, because we have only one sitting day, and that was to hear from our Treasurer and for the handing down of the Allan–Symes budget for this year – a Labor budget, a budget that really talks to our values – but we will also be getting on with business of the house, so I am pleased that we have one bill to keep us very busy today.
We will be debating the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. This is an important bill, one that I know members on this side of the place look forward to speaking on. I anticipate that the Manager of Opposition Business will get on her feet only to oppose the government business program again, because quite frankly, it does not matter whether we are debating three bills or one – one thing we can almost always count on is that those on the other side will oppose our legislative program.
I can also anticipate that the Manager of Opposition Business will say that this is because we will not move to consider the bill in detail. I can explain to the house why we will not be doing that. That is because the minister is not in this chamber. The minister is in fact in the other chamber, and I suspect that the minister is doing what we anticipate all government members in the upper house are doing right now – that is, they will be out right across Victoria, across the suburbs of Melbourne and across the rural and regional towns, outlining our fabulous budget, the budget that has just been handed down by our Treasurer, Ms Symes from the other place.
Those of us who are working through today here in the chamber will be debating the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill. This bill is part of our government’s commitment to lead the way across the nation in reforms that are designed to reduce gambling harm. We have already taken significant steps. That includes establishing the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, Australia’s strongest gambling regulator, with enhanced oversight and enforcement powers. We have also introduced mandatory carded play for pokies at Crown, ensuring that players can track and manage their gambling. We have mandatory closure periods: all hotels and clubs must close gaming areas between 4 am and 10 am to reduce extended gambling sessions. We are currently making reforms to further reduce gambling harm and money laundering, including account-based play across EGMs in Melbourne; implementing load-up limits on Victorian pokies, meaning the amount of money an individual can put into an EGM is being capped at $100, down from $1000; and making it mandatory for all new electronic gambling machines to spin at a minimum rate of 3 seconds per game, slowing the pace of the game down and limiting the amount that can be lost.
With this bill our government is strengthening the regulation of gambling in Victoria.
I know, as I said, that many on this side of the house will look forward to speaking in support of this bill, because as Minister for Health I might say I am very well aware of the health harms that gambling can cause. It is important and right that we support those who for a range of reasons sometimes find themselves with gambling addictions or otherwise in circumstances where they lose money that they simply cannot afford to lose.
I will be very interested indeed to find out why those on the other side of the house would oppose legislation that is designed to support Victorians and those that need government to stand with them and be on their side, because frankly that is what our Labor government is all about. We are on the side of all Victorians. Those on the other side are all about tearing Victoria down. They are all about – (Time expired)
Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (13:41): The Leader of the House could not say anything that is further from the truth. This Labor government – this tired, 10-year-old Labor government – is all about taxing Victorians more. We have just had the budget speech provided in the house, and of course, as we talk about this government business program, today is budget day. It is the day for the government and the Treasurer to deliver the budget, and the Treasurer came from the Legislative Council down into the Assembly to deliver that budget – a budget that taxes Victorians more. The Treasurer is trying to pull the wool over Victorians’ eyes by saying that –
Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, I am loath to interrupt the member on her feet, but she cannot stand in this place and tell lies.
The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the House, that is unparliamentary language. State your point of order.
Mary-Anne Thomas: My point of order is relevance to the government business program. It is not an opportunity to attack the budget.
The SPEAKER: The member for Evelyn will come back to the government business program.
Bridget VALLENCE: This budget relies on the big new emergency services tax that is in the budget, and that is what today is all about. It is a budget day that has a budget that the government says has no new taxes but absolutely relies on the new emergency services tax, which is taxing farmers, renters, manufacturing businesses and families to the hilt. Who would say that this budget has no new taxes when it has a 150 per cent increase on farmers in a cost-of-living crisis? Well, the Liberals and Nationals will scrap this tax, and we ask the Labor government to have some decency and to actually come clean about their budget only relying on this new tax, its 60th tax for the 10 years of this Labor government.
Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, I am loath to do this to the Manager of Opposition Business, but she has been on her feet for more than a minute and she has still not touched on the government business program.
The SPEAKER: Yes, I do remind the member for Evelyn about the government business program before the house.
Bridget VALLENCE: It is a very short government business program today, given the circumstances of the budget being handed down, when, again, I noticed that the members on the other side were very, very flat, because they know actually what is in the papers. It is what is not in the papers that is probably more important.
I can confirm the Leader of the House’s estimation that the opposition will be opposing the government business program, and that is because of our very reasonable request to go into consideration in detail on the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, a bill that our very hardworking shadow minister the member for Ovens Valley sought to go into consideration in detail on, because despite the budget speech just having come forward and the Treasurer trying to tell Victorians that this budget has no new taxes, this Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill has not one but two new taxes in it.
We know the truth. Victorians are starting to see the truth of this government, that it is a high-taxing government – the highest taxes in the country under this Allan Labor government here in Victoria. The member for Ovens Valley – who has been a very busy shadow minister recently with the number of bills that he has had to address in the chamber – will be coming and giving the opposition’s view about the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill. We did seek to scrutinise this bill more, but of course week after week after week in this people’s chamber this Allan Labor government, who does not govern for all, has denied the very reasonable request for us to scrutinise this bill further to make sure that it works for all Victorians and to highlight and ask questions about why this bill is taxing Victorians more. This government’s members will get up during the debate, I am sure, and try to say that it does not include a tax, but it does. So really you only have to read the detail in this bill and see that it does. Again, it is just a desperate attempt from this Allan Labor government to scrape in more revenue. It is going to hurt our clubs, Community Clubs Victoria members and our clubs’ fantastic employers, who train young people. We will be opposing the government business program.
Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (13:46): Let the record show that every time those in this house seek to bring legislation enacting gambling reform to reduce gambling harm in our state, every single time those opposite oppose us even debating it in the house. We have been enacting a series of reforms to reduce the harm of gambling, and that is another step that we are seeking to take today with the introduction of the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. And of course again they seek to block, because those opposite are blockers. However, we will keep trying and we will keep pushing, because we know that we must reform gambling to support those in Victoria who experience harm. We heard from the Leader of the House regarding the health harms. We know that up to a million Victorians every year experience gambling harm.
Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, I think this is pre-empting debate on the bill. It is a narrow procedural debate.
The SPEAKER: I think that ship sailed some time ago, but I do ask the member for Yan Yean to be mindful that we are not here to debate, we are here to talk about the government business program.
Lauren KATHAGE: The reason this government business program is so important is because Victorians experience harm. The member for Evelyn referenced earlier the speech by our Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, talking about the support that we are giving to mortgage-stressed Victorians, because people are losing their homes in a cost-of-living crisis. People who are experiencing stress can turn to gambling and experience greater rates of gambling, so I am proud to be part of a government that does not oppose it every single time we bring it but seeks to continue to improve the lives of Victorians through things such as gambling harm reduction.
It is a very serious matter – it is; I know that – but this legislation, with its talk of pre-commitment and self-exclusion, reminded me of those opposite actually, the Liberals and the Nationals. Perhaps they do not want to talk about pre-commitment, because their commitment to each other has fallen apart. The Liberals and the Nationals have split, and the commitment does not mean anything anymore. As with the self-exclusion that we are introducing in this legislation, it seems that the Nationals have self-excluded themselves from their relationship with the coalition, and that is their right for self-exclusion. So I can understand why they would be a bit touchy to discuss things which touch so closely on their failed relationship.
But the gambling harm reduction must carry on. We have heard in our inquiry about the harms that are caused for women particularly. We know that for women who are incarcerated it is often related to gambling and the harms associated with gambling.
We know that for women who present to emergency departments who have husbands who gamble at harmful levels, the majority of those women who are there for domestic violence are there following their partner’s gambling loss. When their partner loses, it is the woman that pays. We know that the harm from gambling goes well beyond bank balances. It affects relationships, it affects children, it affects all walks of life. I am really proud that our government is bringing this legislation to the house today.
The member for Evelyn and the member for Brighton attempted to block the last set of reforms to gambling legislation we introduced in this place. They stood up and opposed us even talking about the reforms in here. They did not even want to talk about them, so let that be known. The previous reform that I have spoken about, some of the things I am proudest of include the mandatory closure periods, making sure that venues cannot shuffle gamblers from one venue to another to continue to bleed them dry. I also think it is really important that we are continuing the carded play reforms, and we are seeing more of that this week, because we know that when people have the chance to stop and reflect and think about their gambling and the choices that they are making, they will have the opportunity to make better choices for themselves and their families. That is why I am proud to debate this bill in the house.
Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (13:51): I echo the sentiments of the member for Evelyn in opposing today’s government business program, based on once again the inability to scrutinise the government in consideration in detail. Can we just correct a few things? I am not quite sure what the member for Yan Yean’s comments about the federal Parliament have to do with here, but you could see by our unity this morning on the steps of Parliament, whilst the other side were introducing their 60th new or increased tax, that the Liberals and the Nationals have committed to scrap that tax, because this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back. If this is a tax and a fund or a levy that the other side is so proud of, why were they not out on the steps with us this morning speaking to our volunteers? Why were they not there?
Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on relevance to the government business program.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think it has been a fairly wideranging debate on both sides. I would like members to talk about the government business program though; that would be good.
Jade BENHAM: As I said, it has been a fairly wideranging debate, given the fact that the member for Yan Yean brought up the federal Parliament and what is going on in there.
I would like to point out that when we are talking about new taxes that are being introduced on budget day, I would say that is entirely relevant to the government business program today, not to mention the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The Treasurer said yesterday that there will be no new taxes introduced. This immediately introduces two new taxes to ‘extract better value from Victorians’. To extract better value from Victorians in a cost-of-living crisis. That is absolutely preposterous. We did speak up again, and do you know why? The Nationals approach these bills, these changes to legislation and the increases in taxes and levies to gaming venues because in regions – in the actual regions – those venues are owned a lot of the time by families. They are family businesses that can ill afford any more taxes and levies on things that are part of their core business. During a cost-of-living crisis – and you might know this if you ever got out into the community and had a meal at a pub or a pot – when you are buying a shout for three and it costs you around $50 because of excises and things like that –
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Wendouree, 10 minutes outside, please.
Member for Wendouree withdrew from chamber.
Jade BENHAM: We need to actually make it viable for businesses to operate in this state, and that includes family-owned entertainment venues, particularly when in my region you can go over the river to a different community-owned club and the rules are completely different. So yes, we do like to scrutinise these gambling bills when they come to the house. We would like the opportunity to consider them in detail. We think it is vital for those business operators in our regions to be able to do so, so that the government is not extracting more taxes from Victorians. What an absolutely ridiculous thing to say.
While we are on the new taxes and things, just a brush through the budget papers has revealed, while they are taking $139 million out of local communities through their new emergency services tax, they have also cut regional development by another 17 per cent. So not only are they extracting ‘value’ from regional Victorian communities through their new emergency services tax, they are also reducing the regional development fund by another 17 per cent. Please, spare me when you say that you govern for all Victorians. It is an absolutely ridiculous thing to say – extracting more money each and every day out of regional communities. Clearly by the amount of people that were on the front steps of Parliament today, they have had enough. Enough is enough.
Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (13:56): As the Leader of the House and the member for Yan Yean have both noted, today is budget day. We have just had a historic occasion where the first ever female Treasurer in the state of Victoria, Ms Jaclyn Symes, came from the other place, entered our chamber here, the hallowed green hall, and delivered her first budget. It was a budget with hope, and it was a budget with heart. It was actually quite good to hear it being delivered here, looking at the different ways that our government will be seeking to support Victorians further when they need it most. There are so many different things here. I will not anticipate the debate on it, but it was wonderful to hear the Treasurer deliver her speech.
The government business program for the day ahead: obviously we have had the budget delivered, and we do have the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. We have a very full list of willing and enthusiastic speakers on this bill today. There are many who are here to extol the virtues of it, because it will reduce gambling harm and it seeks to reduce money laundering. Gambling comes with many negatives, and that has to be acknowledged in this chamber. It is disappointing that our government business program is also being rejected by the opposition today, that they are not supporting it. It is a shame. Up until now we have only had a handful of times – literally five times – in the 60th Victorian Parliament when the opposition has supported our government business program. I was hoping we could at least get to the second hand and get to six, but it has not happened. It is disappointing but not surprising.
There is a lot that this bill will do. It is really important we always continue to improve the situation for Victorians across the state, and gambling does create harm, it really does. The member for Yan Yean was talking about some of the harms that come as a result when people lose money. I have seen it myself. I saw it as a child whose father was a bit of a punter. We never got into terrible trouble in our family – we were lucky – but we knew people who did. You could see the effects of it, and it was ugly and it was hurtful. So this legislation seeks to drive down some of those harms. It is important legislation.
There is something I do want to touch on, though, given that this has been probably the widest ranging government business program debate I have been a participant in. I know that those opposite were talking about the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, which is a levy, just as the fire services levy, which was introduced by the former coalition government, was a levy. This is a levy as well. I do not know how it changes the nomenclature when we bring it in and all of a sudden they change the title of it from ‘levy’ to ‘tax’. It is an interesting characterisation on their part.
So when they bring it in it is a levy, and when we then amend it and adjust it to reflect the need out there, given climate change and the continuous disasters which keep hitting our state disproportionately to every other part of the country, they change the characterisation of it.
Bridget Vallence: On a point of order on relevance to this very narrow procedural debate, Deputy Speaker, the Labor government has changed it because they are not reserving it for volunteers anymore. They are not reserving this for volunteers anymore.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business knows that points of order are not an opportunity for debate. This has been a wide-ranging debate, and we all know it, and I would love you to come back to the government business program, member for Monbulk.
Daniela DE MARTINO: Thank you, Deputy Speaker, for your ruling on that, and I did note that the Speaker herself mentioned before that the ship had sailed on that one, so I thought I would wave the ship off from the shore. Once again, I am looking forward to today’s proceedings on the government business program. I am looking forward to hearing the contributions on the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The minister and the previous minister and their teams have done quite a lot of work in this regard, and I commend them for it. We are always about the business of governing for Victoria, and once again, with today being budget day, so much will come in the year ahead from the work that has been done here. I commend the Treasurer on her work and her team’s work in this; I commend our government on the program ahead for the day, and I look forward to it unfolding today.
Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (14:01): I am pleased to rise today to contribute to the government business program and the reasons why we oppose it. Again, the reason stated why we oppose it is because we want to go into consideration in detail on the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. It has been pointed out to us that we cannot do it because the minister for this bill is in the other house, and this is what this government does: all the ministers that should be in consideration in detail – the Treasurer, the Minister for Housing and Building, this minister as well –are all hiding in the upper house, so we cannot do consideration in detail, and that is pretty gutless of the government. When you do your next reshuffle, get the ministers that matter into the lower house so we can do consideration in detail; rather than hiding them away in the doll’s house over the other side, bring them into this house so they can be scrutinised. That is not too much to ask.
It has been a wide-ranging debate today; we have talked about the budget, and oh my goodness, do I feel as though every time this government says, ‘We’re doing everything for Victoria,’ the community of Narracan gets screwed over, literally. Sorry, I will use another word – but I cannot use that either, Deputy Speaker, because you will pick me up for that.
Mathew Hilakari interjected.
Wayne FARNHAM: But again, the West Gippsland Hospital, no uplift in the budget – no uplift in the budget for the West Gippsland Hospital.
Mathew Hilakari interjected.
Wayne FARNHAM: It was meant to start in 2024, member for Point Cook –
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Point Cook can leave the chamber for 10 minutes.
Member for Point Cook withdrew from chamber.
Wayne FARNHAM: but this government has broken its promise on that. What is even more disappointing about that was I asked the Minister of the Health back on 12 November last year, just after my father died, ‘Give my community a date on when this hospital will start’, and the Minister for Health has not answered that question six months later, and the community of West Gippsland deserve to know when that is going to start. Looking at the budget today, at best it is going to be in the back half of 2026, two years after the government committed to it – two years later, and that is disgraceful. I do not care what anyone says, the minister can argue with me all she wants, but she knows the commitment of the hospital and she knows it has been wound back and delayed. So I want to see an excavator on that site more than anyone else.
But we have had a couple of wide-ranging debates today; it has gone wide. We have talked about the fire services levy and the thousands of volunteers who are out the front today protesting against this rise. The member for Monbulk rightly stated we brought in the levy; we did not call it a volunteer levy, we called it a levy, but we did not charge farmers $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 a year. That is what we did not do, and that is what this government has done. When farmers are already under stress – they are already buying in feed, they are buying in water – and the government slugs this tax on them, of course they are going to be on the steps of Parliament protesting, and so they should be.
You cannot bring in a tax and put it under a volunteers banner. It is not right. It would have been good to see the member for Werribee out there today supporting his CFA volunteers. It would have been good for him to be out there, but no, he was hiding out here. I would love to have seen the member for Werribee out there today after last week’s contribution, standing up for his volunteers, but no, he did not. He hid behind the walls.
Michaela Settle: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker: relevance.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It has been a wideranging debate. The member to continue, preferably on the government business program.
Wayne FARNHAM: I will try to speak on it, but it is pretty thin. We have only got one bill to speak about, and it has gone wide, as you rightly pointed out.
We have talked about the 60th tax, but okay, I will talk about the Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill. Just the other day the Treasurer said, ‘No more new taxes; there’ll be no more taxes.’ The first bill that comes into this place – more taxes. The very first bill, not 24 hours after the Treasurer said it – another bill, another tax. It is as simple as that. Unfortunately, at this point in time I cannot pre-empt debate, but from the rough read I have had of the bill coming in today, it brings another two new taxes into this state. So straight off, within the first 24 hours – well done, government – more taxes to Victorians: of course we oppose the program.
Assembly divided on motion:
Ayes (53): Juliana Addison, Jacinta Allan, Colin Brooks, Josh Bull, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Darren Cheeseman, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Eden Foster, Matt Fregon, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Lauren Kathage, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, John Lister, Gary Maas, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, Paul Mercurio, John Mullahy, Danny Pearson, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Jackson Taylor, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Emma Vulin, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Gabrielle Williams, Belinda Wilson
Noes (28): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Roma Britnell, Tim Bull, Martin Cameron, Annabelle Cleeland, Chris Crewther, Wayne Farnham, Sam Groth, Matthew Guy, David Hodgett, Emma Kealy, Tim McCurdy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, John Pesutto, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, David Southwick, Bill Tilley, Bridget Vallence, Peter Walsh, Kim Wells, Nicole Werner, Rachel Westaway, Jess Wilson
Motion agreed to.