{"id":666233,"date":"2026-05-12T15:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:20:09","slug":"labor-dropped-their-long-awaited-gambling-report-on-budget-day-were-they-betting-no-one-would-notice-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666233\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor dropped their long-awaited gambling report on budget day. Were they betting no one would notice? | Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Labor government decided to release its contentious, much-delayed response to Peta Murphy\u2019s report on gambling on one of the biggest political news days of the year.<\/p>\n

They dropped it while the nation\u2019s federal political journalists were trapped in budget lockup.<\/p>\n

Tuesday was the first parliament sitting day since the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, sketched out the rough shape of the government\u2019s long-awaited response in his National Press Club speech on 2 April<\/a>, and therefore the first opportunity to table that report. Government sources are pointing to this procedural rationale to explain the timing of the response, maintaining the scheduling was coincidence, not conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\"AlbaneseAlbanese announces new restrictions on gambling advertising \u2013 video <\/p>\n

But little is going to shift the claims from gambling harm advocates that \u2013 after three years of delay, deliberation and false starts \u2013 the government\u2019s timing is, at the least, convenient if they wanted to bury this report.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralians deserve better,\u201d independent senator David Pocock said moments after the response landed, calling the timing \u201cdisrespectful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really clear that the government is trying to avoid public scrutiny because it knows that its response on gambling reform is not good enough,\u201d said teal MP Kate Chaney, one of the members of Murphy\u2019s committee.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited response, where the government merely \u201cnotes\u201d the recommendations of the Murphy report, is hardly dynamite. Many questions about how exactly the settings will work, how the bans will be enforced and what the rules will require of gambling operators and advertisers, are still to be decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther details will be settled through the legislative drafting process,\u201d the government states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government notes the 31 recommendations made by the Committee,\u201d it says of the report.<\/p>\n

But the fact the report barely gets a few hours of clear air before a veritable tidal wave of economic news<\/a> \u2013 tax cuts, contentious negative gearing changes, NDIS reforms \u2013 hits every newspaper, website, social media feed and TV network for the next few days, has angered longtime advocates for change.<\/p>\n

Tuesday is 1,049 days since Murphy\u2019s landmark \u201cyou win some, you lose more\u201d report was tabled in parliament. Guardian Australia has been among the outlets continually asking about the government\u2019s response, so it is to be welcomed that the reforms are in train and will come into force on 1 January 2027.<\/p>\n

A less-expected element was plans to standardise criminal laws against match-fixing. Long-awaited changes to clamp down on online ads, restrict TV and radio ads during matches, set new rules about social media influencers and podcasters, nip in the bud the emerging online lottery market, and strengthen the BetStop self-exclusion register, have been rightly described by the government as the \u201cmost significant reform\u201d on gambling in Australian history. Breaking the link between sports and gambling is an admirable goal, as is doubling funding to financial counselling.<\/p>\n

Senior people in the Labor government have long said they expected almost everyone involved in the gambling debate to be annoyed by some part or another of their advertising reforms: harm advocates will say it\u2019s not enough while the wagering industry will say it\u2019s too much, resigned-sounding sources have continually told us.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not wrong. This is spiky, difficult, complicated reform, with big dollars and major stakeholders. The communications minister, Anika Wells, has deftly trod a fine line between numerous interlinked challenges, with obvious interplay between gambling advertising, the news bargaining incentive, the under-16s social media ban and other online safety reforms, and the Australian government deserves recognition for its world-leading reforms to rein in the power of big tech.<\/p>\n

Gambling operators say they\u2019re still waiting to hear concrete details of what they\u2019ll need to do. Changes to ad frequency on TV and radio are simple enough to understand, but more ambitious changes \u2013 including restricting podcasters and celebrity endorsements \u2013 will take some defining. The \u201ctriple lock\u201d rules for online platforms, requiring digital streamers and websites to allow users to opt out of gambling ads, are a major change that will let users simply choose to never see another annoying promotion for same-game multis and odds.<\/p>\n

But industry also wonders whether large platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Netflix will build in such functionalities or simply put a blanket ban on advertising. The blurry lines created by some online content creators, who make sporting content for fans but also plug sponsored content from wagering companies, will also require close inspection.<\/p>\n

The government has committed to reform, which is welcome. It would have been easier to let the issue quietly slip away rather than stick by a difficult process where it knew everyone would be cranky.<\/p>\n

But everyone is also waiting for more detail about what is to be done, and whether the government\u2019s rhetoric on addressing gambling harms will match its actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Labor government decided to release its contentious, much-delayed response to Peta Murphy\u2019s report on gambling on one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-666233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}