Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026

Sophie Scamps

I move amendments (1) to (8), as circulated in my name, together:

(1) Schedule 1, page 4 (before line 9), before item 2, insert:

1C After section 3

Insert:

3A Administration of this Act

(1) The Health Minister has the general administration of this Act.

(2) To avoid doubt, subsection (1) has effect despite anything in:

(a) an Administrative Arrangements Order; or

(b) a substituted reference order made under section 19B of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.

Note: Subsection (2) of this section does not prevent an order mentioned in that subsection from being used for the purposes of determining which Minister is the Health Minister.

(2) Schedule 1, item 3, page 4 (after line 18), after the definition of court/tribunal proceedings in section 4, insert:

Health Minister means the Minister administering the National Health Act 1953.

(3) Schedule 1, item 18, page 24 (line 29), omit "8:30 pm", substitute "10:30 pm".

(4) Schedule 1, item 18, page 25 (line 11), omit "5 minutes", substitute "1 hour".

(5) Schedule 1, item 18, page 25 (line 13), omit "5 minutes", substitute "1 hour".

(6) Schedule 1, item 18, page 26 (line 6), omit "8:30 pm", substitute "10:30 pm".

(7) Schedule 1, item 18, page 27 (lines 4 to 8), omit the example, substitute:

Example: Broadcasting of live coverage of a sporting event that is scheduled to start at 7 pm and ends at 11.30 pm is subject to both:

(a) the restrictions under section 62K between 6 pm and 10:30 pm (the restrictions start 1 hour before the scheduled start of the sporting event because of the operation of subsection 62K(2)); and

(b) the restrictions under this section between 10:30 pm and 11:30 pm.

(8) Schedule 1, item 18, page 27 (line 34), omit "8:30 pm", substitute "10:30 pm".

To be clear, to protect the wellbeing of Australians, particularly young Australians, what's needed is a full ban on gambling advertising phased in over three years, exactly as recommended in the You win some, you lose more report that had unanimous and multipartisan support from all involved in that parliamentary inquiry. However, my amendments respond to the bill before me.

My first amendment would strengthen protections for children, protecting them from regularly seeing gambling advertising in the evenings as they watch footy. Currently, the unamended bill would ban gambling ads during live sports coverage on broadcast, datacasting and online content services between 5 am and 8.30 pm. My amendment would extend this blackout for gambling ads during sports broadcasts by extending that restricted period from 8.30 pm to 10.30 pm. After 8.30 pm, the government's bill would allow unlimited gambling advertising during live sports in both scheduled and unscheduled breaks, including half-time and rain delays. This undermines efforts to break the link between sport and gambling, and we know many children just do not go to bed at 8.30 in the middle of a match.

The government has stated that the reforms will protect children. They will not. The Australian Gambling Research Centre notes that, while child viewership drops after 8.30 pm, around half of children watching peak-time television are still watching at 9 pm and a quarter remain at 10 pm. Worse still, the bill actually weakens existing protections. The Alliance for Gambling Reform and the Monash Addiction Research Centre note that gambling ads are currently banned during live sport regardless of the time of day. Under the government's proposed bill, those protections would be removed after 8.30 pm. In the absence of a full ban, my amendment to extend the restriction period to 10.30 pm creates a more realistic and child-protective threshold that better reflects the evidence and real-life viewing habits.

Gambling advertising is harmful not only during the match itself but during the build-up and aftermath, when excitement is high and betting odds are being promoted. So my first amendment also extends the buffer period before and after live sporting events from what was five and now is 15 minutes. My amendment would extend that to one hour before and after the event.

To my second amendment, treating gambling as a public health issue was a core recommendation of the Murphy report. Gambling has serious and harmful effects on Australians' health and wellbeing. It causes over 400 deaths by suicide every year, and this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gambling related harms. The Australian Medical Association has consistently argued that gambling is a public health issue and gambling harm affects mental health, physical health and community wellbeing. Doctors and health professionals see the consequences: anxiety, depression, substance use, family breakdown, domestic violence, financial distress and social isolation.

However, currently gambling is not primarily dealt with by the Minister for Health and Ageing or the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Instead, gambling is the responsibility of the Minister for Communications. This is a serious flaw. Gambling is far more than a communications issue. We treat tobacco and alcohol as public health issues. Gambling, also highly addictive and potentially harmful, should be no different. Indeed, the government's own explanatory memorandum to this bill describes gambling harm as 'a significant public health concern'. It's common sense that a public health concern should sit within a public health framework, under the responsibility of the minister for health.

Moving responsibility for the act to the health minister would send a clear message that this government is serious about safeguarding the health and wellbeing of Australians and protecting our children from the predatory gambling companies who target our most vulnerable relentlessly. Instead of protecting the profits of gambling companies, the government should be protecting the health and wellbeing of Australians, especially our children. Gambling is a highly addictive pursuit that causes untold harm to the health and wellbeing of Australians, and it needs a health led response. I want to thank Professor Samantha Thomas, the public health specialist, for her tireless work to reframe gambling as a public health issue.

These amendments would put gambling harm where it belongs—as a public health issue within the health portfolio—and would extend protections for children and young people watching live sport in the evening with their families. I urge all in parliament, in the House, to support these commonsense amendments.

Anika Wells

I thank the member for Mackellar for moving these amendments. The government will not support these amendments. The government shares the objective of reducing gambling harm and limiting exposure to wagering advertising, particularly for children and young people. The gambling reform bill takes strong action to limit exposure to wagering advertising from the times and places that children are watching. It bans wagering advertising during live sports, it sets a frequency cap to ensure audiences aren't saturated with wagering advertising, and it makes a family trip to the footy a wagering ad free space by banning ads on sporting uniforms and at sporting venues. The frequency cap and live sport restrictions are in place until 8.30 pm, which reflects the data mentioned that shows child audiences drop significantly after this time.

In response to calls for more distance between wagering ads and sport events, the government has moved an amendment to extend the blackout period before a live sporting event to 15 minutes. This amendment, along with the measures I have just outlined, will break the link between wagering and sport. With regard to the amendment prescribing the health minister as the general administrator of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, I would note that it is not convention for legislation to prescribe which portfolios should have responsibility for specific acts. Machinery of government arrangements have long been decided by the Prime Minister as the head of government through established processes.

Question negatived.

Long debate text truncated.