When the New South Wales Labor faithful gather for their annual state conference this weekend, more than a few will be looking to the leadership of Darcy Byrne. The mayor of the Inner West Council, Byrne is helping spearhead a push for Labor to remove at least 45,000 poker machines from venues around the state over the next decade.<\/p>\n
With a growing profile<\/a> and fans well beyond Sydney, Byrne is widely expected to contest the Labor-held seat of Grayndler whenever Anthony Albanese leaves federal parliament.<\/p>\n A factional deal between left and right powerbrokers to support the plan has emerged as a major political headache for the Minns government, with Byrne challenging the party and the broader labour movement to properly face up to the harm of gambling addiction once and for all.<\/p>\n Policy documents for the conference note that NSW has nearly half of all Australia\u2019s pokies and, on current policy settings, it will take 55 years for the state to cut enough machines to reach the national average. Punters in NSW lost $2.3bn playing pokies in the three months to June alone.<\/p>\n The push comes as Albanese\u2019s own government grapples with the difficult politics of gambling. This week, the communications minister, Anika Wells, introduced new legislation to restrict gambling advertising. Dubbed by the prime minister as the strongest-ever suite of laws, the plan has been criticised by reform advocates as insufficient.<\/p>\n For Labor \u2013 and the country as a whole \u2013 facing up to the harm of problem gambling is as urgent as it is difficult.<\/p>\n The new laws are part of the federal government\u2019s response to Peta Murphy\u2019s landmark inquiry report into online gambling harms. In 2023, the late Labor MP<\/a> and her parliamentary colleagues recommended a total ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling in Australia, to be implemented over three years.<\/p>\n A brief summary of Murphy\u2019s proposed phase-in plan is instructive.<\/p>\n The first step would have been an immediate ban on online gambling inducements and inducement advertising, as well as a ban on gambling ads on social media platforms. Advertising exemptions during news and current affairs would have been removed and ads banned on radio during school pick up and drop off periods.<\/p>\n Phase two would have included a ban on online gambling advertising and commentary on odds during live sport broadcasts, running an hour either side of the gams. Logos on players\u2019 uniforms and advertising inside stadiums would also end.<\/p>\n Under the third phase, online gambling ads would be blocked between 6am and 10pm.<\/p>\n In the final phase \u2013 which, under Murphy\u2019s proposed timeline, would have been implemented last month \u2013 all online gambling advertising and sponsorship would have been prohibited permanently.<\/p>\n Murphy\u2019s report also called for a national online gambling regulator to be established, charged with all licensing and regulation and an explicit mandate of reducing community harm.<\/p>\n Instead of following the recommendations, Labor has developed its own plan, restricting gambling ads on TV to no more than three an hour between 6am and 8.30pm and banning ads during live sport in the same period. Gambling<\/a> ads would be banned online unless users are over 18 and opt-out mechanisms are in place. Celebrity and influencer endorsements would also stop, as well as ads inside sporting venues and on player uniforms.<\/p>\n Due to come into force from 1 January next year, the changes will be the subject of a Senate inquiry, expected to report when MPs return to Canberra in August.<\/p>\n On Friday, there was confusion when Albanese defended the government\u2019s proposals by suggesting the legislation in some ways \u201cgoes further\u201d than the Murphy report.<\/p>\n He said overseas-based gambling services would be restricted under the plan, a reference to new bans on online keno and so-called foreign matched lotteries in the bill. A separate piece of legislation introduced on Thursday is designed to strengthen the BetStop self exclusion system for problem gamblers, making gambling companies pay for wider promotion.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not against someone having a punt on a Saturday,\u201d Albanese told ABC radio. \u201cWhat I\u2019m against is problem gambling, which overwhelmingly, by the way, is poker machines, which is of course regulated by the states.\u201d<\/p>\n The comments won\u2019t do much to quell criticism of the government\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n Almost no one is happy so far. The Coalition, Greens and crossbenchers all say the changes are too weak and Liberal MP Simon Kennedy was booted from question time on Thursday after challenging Albanese about Australians taking their own lives because of gambling addiction. About half a dozen Liberal MPs have urged the Coalition to push for tougher laws<\/a>, and the shadow communications minister, Sarah Henderson, says she thinks the bill is \u201cundercooked\u201d.<\/p>\n ACT independent David Pocock accused Labor of delivering for the gambling lobby at the expense of children, echoing criticism from reform advocate Tim Costello, who accuses NRL chair Peter V\u2019landys and former AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan \u2013 now the boss of betting company Tabcorp \u2013 of having \u201cpresided over the capture of a generation by foreign betting companies\u201d.<\/p>\n