Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily
Speaker 1: ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the sixteenth of August. I'm zara, I'm billy. Should online
Speaker 2: gambling ads be banned altogether? Now? That's the question that's
Speaker 2: currently in front of the government as they weigh up
Speaker 2: how to deal with Australia's gambling problem. While a committee
Speaker 2: report last year recommended a total ban on all online
Speaker 2: gambling advertising, there are now reports that the government won't
Speaker 2: go for a total ban, but instead a partial one.
Speaker 2: In today's deep Dive, we're going to explore what the
Speaker 2: fallout from those reports have been, what the government's options are,
Speaker 2: and what we can expect next. But first, Billy, what's
Speaker 2: making headlines.
Speaker 1: Opposition leader Peter Dudden has doubled down on calls for
Speaker 1: a temporary immigration pause on people fleeing gars. Dunnan introduced
Speaker 1: a motion in Parliament yesterday claiming that some of nearly
Speaker 1: three thousand visas granted by the government, two individuals from
Speaker 1: Gaza have gone to applicants who have quote express sympathy
Speaker 1: for Hamas. Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi accused Dudden of sowing
Speaker 1: quote fear and division over Palestinian visas. Independent MP Zali
Speaker 1: Stegl also spoke out against Duddin's motion, calling it racist,
Speaker 1: before then withdrawing her remark.
Speaker 2: Australia's unemployment rate rose slightly from four point one percent
Speaker 2: to four point two percent in July. That's according to
Speaker 2: the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The unemployment rate reflects the
Speaker 2: percentage of people who were looking for work but couldn't
Speaker 2: find any. July marks the highest that unemployment has been
Speaker 2: since November twenty twenty one. Despite the number of employed
Speaker 2: people increasing by an extra fifty eight thousand people last month,
Speaker 2: The Reserve Bank of Australia forecasts the unemployment rate will
Speaker 2: rise to four point three percent by the end of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of women in the Indian state of
Speaker 1: West Bengal have protested against sexual violence. It follows the
Speaker 1: rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolcuta hospital.
Speaker 1: Federal police have taken over investigations after local authorities were
Speaker 1: accused of negligence and cover ups. Demonstrators, including thousands of doctors,
Speaker 1: are calling for better security measures to keep women and
Speaker 1: medical professionals.
Speaker 2: Safe and today's good news. Researchers have been given new
Speaker 2: insight into life in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
Speaker 2: Archaeologists announced this week they've unearthed two skeletons, coins, and
Speaker 2: jewelry that were believed to have been buried when Mount
Speaker 2: Vesuvius erupted nearly two thousand years ago. Officials say that
Speaker 2: discovery offered invaluable anthropological data about the ancient city and
Speaker 2: its residents. So Billy Parliament resumed this week. It was
Speaker 2: the first sitting week back after an extended winter break,
Speaker 2: and the big time that everyone seems to be talking
Speaker 2: about is gambling. That's because the government's currently preparing to
Speaker 2: introduce its legislation to deal with the rise in online gambling. Now.
Speaker 2: I do think that sometimes we talk about gambling, but
Speaker 2: we don't really set out the problem, and I think
Speaker 2: that it's important to set out the problem so that
Speaker 2: we know what the government is trying to solve. The
Speaker 2: issue is this, Australians spend and lose more money to
Speaker 2: gambling than people in any other country in the world.
Speaker 2: Deestimated that as a country, we collectively lose twenty five
Speaker 2: billion dollars in bets every single year.
Speaker 1: That's wild.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a crazy statistic. And so in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: the government identified that this was an issue and they
Speaker 2: referred the matter to a committee, and that committee was
Speaker 2: tasked with coming up with some recommendations on how to
Speaker 2: deal with this rise in online gambling and also to
Speaker 2: look at its effects on those actually experiencing online gambling harm.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that committee handed down its final report in
Speaker 1: June of last year. Can you tell me a bit
Speaker 1: about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I do think that there are a few
Speaker 2: things to note about this committee because committee's hand down
Speaker 2: reports all the time, and like normal people outside of
Speaker 2: you and I don't often pay close attention to those
Speaker 2: committee reports. But this one is really different. And it's
Speaker 2: because this committee was chaired by the late Labor MP
Speaker 2: Peter Murphy, who died from cancer in December of last year.
Speaker 2: So the committee that she was leading recommended that the
Speaker 2: government should adopt a full ban on online gambling advertisements
Speaker 2: in a phased approach. And so the reason that this
Speaker 2: is coming up and that this is becoming such a
Speaker 2: big talking point is because that recommendation that I just
Speaker 2: said is largely seen as Peter Murphy's legacy. So you know,
Speaker 2: she was this really beloved member of the Labor Party,
Speaker 2: and now people are saying that, however the government responds,
Speaker 2: here is more than just about gambling. It's also about
Speaker 2: honoring Peter Murphy's legacy.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Murphy letter committee that recommended a total ban
Speaker 1: on online gambling advertising. That was in June of last
Speaker 1: But why are we talking about it today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so we haven't heard from the government since then.
Speaker 2: So usually when a committee hands down a report, the
Speaker 2: government takes some time to consider what's in that report
Speaker 2: and then they formally respond. And so the conversation now
Speaker 2: is that the government is getting ready to formally respond,
Speaker 2: and that that formal response, from what we are hearing,
Speaker 2: isn't what the committee actually recommended. So I want to
Speaker 2: just really quickly read out exactly what the recommendation was,
Speaker 2: because I think then you can compare it to what
Speaker 2: we're hearing the government is going to try and propose.
Speaker 2: So the exact recommendation that the committee led by Peter
Speaker 2: Murphy made was the Committee recommends that the Australian Government,
Speaker 2: with a cooperation of the States and territories, implement a
Speaker 2: comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling
Speaker 2: to be introduced in four phases over three years, commencing immediately.
Speaker 2: And so they're not suggesting there that tomorrow you turn
Speaker 2: off all online gambling ads. They're saying, this needs to
Speaker 2: be a phased approach, but there needs to be the
Speaker 2: plan to phase it out entirely. But that doesn't seem
Speaker 2: to be the way that the government is going. And
Speaker 2: so earlier this month this story made its way back
Speaker 2: into the headlines because the nine newspapers reported that a
Speaker 2: government is now considering a partial ban rather than the
Speaker 2: full ban that was recommended.
Speaker 1: What's also interesting about that is that Peter Murphy was
Speaker 1: Labor and this is a labor government responding.
Speaker 2: And that's why it's so tense, because they're saying, you
Speaker 2: tasked this former Labor MP with bringing you answers, and
Speaker 2: she is no longer there and you are not doing
Speaker 2: what she recommended. Like it's also a really deeply emotional thing.
Speaker 2: You know, I've never read about someone who was more
Speaker 2: beloved by a party, and so now it's it's feeling
Speaker 2: quite personal, which is a really interesting element to it.
Speaker 1: So Murphy recommended a total ban. We now know that
Speaker 1: the government is more considering a partial ban. What do
Speaker 1: we know about what a partial ban would look like.
Speaker 2: Well, again, I think it's important to know that the
Speaker 2: government hasn't explicitly said anything on the record. We are
Speaker 2: relying quite a bit on what the nine papers are reporting.
Speaker 2: And what they're reporting is that instead of a total ban,
Speaker 2: Labor is now looking at adopting a cap of two
Speaker 2: gambling ads per hour on each channel until ten pm,
Speaker 2: and then banning ads an hour before and an hour
Speaker 2: after live sport. That's just what's being reported, but it
Speaker 2: does seem that that's picking up steam. And already we've
Speaker 2: had a lot of people come out and criticize that proposal.
Speaker 1: Who is criticizing it and what exactly are their criticisms.
Speaker 2: Well, the criticism is coming from both inside and outside
Speaker 2: the camp. When I say inside the camp, we've had
Speaker 2: some Labor MPs who are part of the current government
Speaker 2: coming out and saying, no, we need to do this
Speaker 2: full ban, it's an imperative. We had Labor backbencher Mike Friedlander,
Speaker 2: who's a doctor, saying that a total ban is the
Speaker 2: only possible answer from a public health perspective. So that
Speaker 2: is someone of the same government coming out and say nah,
Speaker 2: we cannot do what is being proposed right now. Then,
Speaker 2: in terms of broader criticisms, we've had an open letter
Speaker 2: this week from the Alliance for Gambling Reform that said
Speaker 2: a tsunami of one million gambling ads are shown on
Speaker 2: free to AIRTV and radio every year, and that open
Speaker 2: letter is calling for this full ban. Interestingly, it was
Speaker 2: signed by quite high profile Australian figures, people like John Howard,
Speaker 2: ex Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull also an ex Prime minister.
Speaker 2: We had Dom Perrete, the ex Premier from New South Wales,
Speaker 2: and Steve Brax, the X Premier in Victoria. So we're
Speaker 2: kind of getting a full spectrum of political opinions here
Speaker 2: saying you have to go with the full ban. It
Speaker 2: is a balancing act though for the government because they've
Speaker 2: got these loud voices, but then they've also got loud
Speaker 2: voices on the other side from the gambling industry and
Speaker 2: from the media industry who are saying no, this won't work.
Speaker 1: I do think it's interesting exploring the media industry's perspective
Speaker 1: a little bit more because a lot of free to
Speaker 1: air channels, so you think of your nines and your sevens.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are saying that they are really
Speaker 1: quite reliant on the advertising money coming from gambling companies.
Speaker 1: And we know that it's not controversial to say that
Speaker 1: TV is a dying industry and to keep it alive,
Speaker 1: they right now are very reliant on that money, and
Speaker 1: so that comes into the balancing act.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've heard a lot of that sort of
Speaker 2: argument being made. I was listening to an interview of
Speaker 2: the CEO from Free TV, so she's representing all of
Speaker 2: those channels, saying that this will put a hole in
Speaker 2: the bottom line of these media companies and that then
Speaker 2: in turn, they can't fund the public interest journalism.
Speaker 1: And then the counter to that is that this was
Speaker 1: a debate that they were having about the tobacco industry
Speaker 1: a number of decades ago, exactly, and ultimately they did
Speaker 1: ban tobacco advertising and that was done to the benefit
Speaker 1: of everyone's overall health and that was a positive.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, interesting you bring up that example because Bill
Speaker 2: Shorten earlier this week. So gambling is not the same
Speaker 2: as tobacco, and so the government's quite clearly trying to
Speaker 2: differentiate the two, even though there are those around who
Speaker 2: are saying, no, these are both public health crises, and
Speaker 2: look at how you dealt with one, you need to
Speaker 2: deal with the other one in exactly the same way.
Speaker 2: But yeah, the media is certainly one part. But then
Speaker 2: obviously the other group that aren't stoked about this is
Speaker 2: the betting companies themselves. Again, a lot of this is
Speaker 2: happening behind closed doors, so I read that, you know,
Speaker 2: some of these companies have had to sign NDAs before
Speaker 2: entering into meetings with the Minister for Communications about this,
Speaker 2: So we don't know a whole lot, but from some
Speaker 2: reporting around, we've seen that the betting companies are acknowledging
Speaker 2: something will need to be done, and instead of wanting
Speaker 2: a full ban, they're offering to remove their logos from
Speaker 2: sporting jerseys. So that's one proposal from them. The other
Speaker 2: is that they'd offer to remove any advertising from radios
Speaker 2: during school pickup time, So again that's more of a
Speaker 2: partial ban. I mean, I don't even know if that's
Speaker 2: really a ban, but it's more trying to find some
Speaker 2: solutions within the current frame work that will allow them
Speaker 2: to continue advertising.
Speaker 1: Okay, so there is all of this pressure on the government.
Speaker 1: It is a very fine Balancing Act. We know what
Speaker 1: is being reported and you know kind of the rumors
Speaker 1: of what they're saying, but what is actually on the
Speaker 1: record by the politicians.
Speaker 2: Not a whole lot. We had Harry from our office
Speaker 2: reach out to Michelle Roland, she's the Communications Minister, and
Speaker 2: her office said the status quo of online wagering advertising
Speaker 2: is untenable. She added that the government was continuing to
Speaker 2: speak with harm reduction advocates, health experts in industry before
Speaker 2: it tables any legislation. But again that's not really telling
Speaker 2: us anything we don't know. On the other side of politics,
Speaker 2: we had Liberal Senator Jane Hume say on Q and
Speaker 2: A earlier this week that you have to find the
Speaker 2: right balance. She said, it's not an illegal pastime. Adults
Speaker 2: can participate by choice.
Speaker 1: So that shows that, you know, again within parties, within
Speaker 1: the Liberal Party, there is not consensus about what should
Speaker 1: be done on this issue.
Speaker 2: Exactly. A Liberal elder in John Howard is saying you
Speaker 2: need a total ban and that a current coalition senator
Speaker 2: Jane Hume is saying the opposite. So interesting, it is
Speaker 2: quite a divisive topic. One person that's come out fairly
Speaker 2: strongly out the Gates. Here is Independent Senator David Pocock.
Speaker 2: He has just essentially said the government must back a
Speaker 2: full ban and that they need to show courage and
Speaker 2: that they need to go and do this even if
Speaker 2: it is tough. So we've got kind of a fairly
Speaker 2: aligned cross bench there behind Pocock saying you have to
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 1: And so next week there will be another sitting week.
Speaker 1: Are we expecting them to table that legislation next week?
Speaker 2: I mean, given all of the talk and all of
Speaker 2: the hype, I think that they're going to have to
Speaker 2: act pretty soon and they can expect whatever happens based
Speaker 2: on what we've just said, that there will be blowback
Speaker 2: wherever they land, because there are so many different stakeholders
Speaker 2: here with so much to lose.
Speaker 1: Okay, so one to watch. This is a story I've
Speaker 1: seen everywhere this week, and I feel like it's another
Speaker 1: time that I want to say, oh no makes sentence.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Sarah, and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening to this episode of the Day. If you
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, have a great weekend and we'll
Speaker 1: be back again on Monday. My name is Lily Maddon
Speaker 1: and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung calcotton woman from Gadigol Country.
Speaker 1: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 1: the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 1: all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay
Speaker 1: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 1: past and present.