Tuesday, 4 February 2025

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (14:41): We have just had a summer of fantastic sport, with much of it played here in Melbourne. But infuriatingly, along with that summer of sport there was a relentless stream of gambling advertising. The community is sick of it. An overwhelming majority of us want to see our governments protect us from this predatory industry. We know that Australians outspend the citizens of every other country on all forms of gambling online and in venues. We know that this gambling harm also is wreaking havoc within our communities, far beyond the financial. The federal parliamentary gambling inquiry chaired by the late and respected Labor member Peta Murphy unanimously recommended that gambling advertising be phased out and then banned altogether. The Prime Minister spent last year dithering, prioritising consultation with vested interests in the gambling industry, and now he has kicked the can further down the road again, with no reforms expected in this term of government. When we look at state reforms, we see we have the reform bill currently before our Parliament, and it is not before time. We see that the data from the Victorian Population Gambling and Health Study 2023 shows that gambling harm has increased and shows a sharp rise in young men aged 18 to 24 gambling on poker machines. Let us not bake gambling harm into the next generation. I sincerely hope we see these reforms implemented and operating throughout all venues in this term of government. We need our government to protect communities, not provide cover for industries that exploit them.