Source : THE AGE NEWS
The task of reducing gambling ads should sit with Health Minister Mark Butler rather than Sports and Communications Minister Anika Wells, says top anti-gambling advocate Tim Costello, who argues pairing the two portfolios creates a conflict of interest.
The structural and commercial links between sport, gambling and media mean the issue must be approached as a health issue, said Costello, the Gambling Reform Alliance’s chief advocate, who described Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to pair the portfolios together as a slap in the face of recommendations put forward by the late-Peta Murphy’s inquiry.
Gambling reform advocate Tim Costello and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit: SMH
Progress fixing the harm from gambling has been stifled by its long-term link to sport and the way gambling reform would impact the nation’s top codes, said Costello. He believes it must be viewed as a health issue.
“Unhinge those two, that’s why we never get reform,” Costello said.
“You might as well have alcohol and tobacco placed with sport in the same ministry and same minister.”
Wells picked up the communications portfolio alongside her existing brief as sport minister in the cabinet reshuffle on Monday, replacing Michelle Rowland, who worked on gambling reform policy for 18 months and has now been appointed attorney-general.
Gambling advertising reform became a vexed issue for the Albanese government in its first term and was ultimately shelved in January after pressure from the top sporting codes, media companies and wagering firms.
The major sporting codes, television broadcasters, wagering firms and other key stakeholders had met Rowland’s team and were briefed on the policy proposals in August, and signed non-disclosure agreements to keep those briefings private.
This included plans for a blanket ban on social media advertising, more than a year after the Murphy-chaired bipartisan inquiry recommended a full ban for ads promoting online gambling.
Costello has accused the AFL and NRL of directly leaking those plans to “destroy any reform” of the sector, which would have had commercial implications for the codes and media companies.
Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport Anika Wells being sworn in this week by Governor-General Sam Mostyn. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“They leaked it because they wanted to weaken it, to fight it,” Costello said.
Wells said that the Albanese government had already undertaken some of the most significant harm reduction measures in relation to gambling in Australian history, but would continue to assess and work on a response to the inquiry.
Wells, who took on the communications role three days ago, said that measures already in place included implementing mandatory customer ID verification for online betting, banning the use of credit cards, introducing new evidence-based tag lines in advertising and launching BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, among others.
“We know there is more to do, and we will continue with this work,” Wells said in a statement. The overall responsibility for the regulation of gambling services is shared between the federal government and state and territory governments.
The AFL and NRL, as well as the prime minister’s office, were approached for comment.
The commercial models of sports, media and gambling companies are intertwined, complicating Wells’ oversight of all these sectors as the government seeks to tackle the harm caused by gambling.
Both of the dominant winter sports codes – AFL and NRL – get a cut of each bet placed on their competitions and have advertising deals with Sportsbet.
The media companies, in particular the major sports broadcasters – Seven, Nine and Foxtel – also benefit from the main wagering firms buying advertising space, with the revenue helping them pay for increasingly expensive broadcast rights. Nine Entertainment owns this masthead.
The late Labor MP Peta Murphy during a parliamentary hearing into online gambling.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
While the proposed policy had been briefed to the major stakeholders and then shelved, the government had yet to respond publicly to Murphy’s report, Costello said.
“They have not even responded to those 31 recommendations, so I’m hopeful that she [Wells] understands the gravity of that situation,” Costello said, adding that the report was endorsed by members of the Coalition, Labor, Greens and independents, a rare feat in federal politics.
Murphy’s report said the inescapable torrent of gambling advertising was leading children and young people to take up wagering as a habit. Albanese and former opposition leader Peter Dutton have admitted previously that there are too many gambling ads; the recommendations have also received support from former prime ministers John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull.
Wells, who was a friend of Murphy and was involved in developing the policy’s formulation as the sports minister, in November said it needed more work. She flagged concerns about the impact gambling had on sport integrity and athletes, but noted that the sporting codes benefited from wagering funds.
“But also … on the flip side, I’ve got national sporting organisations and professional codes who are worried about how this will impact the viability of their financial model,” she said at the time.
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