CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
The gambling lobby’s arch-enemy, independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie has accused The Albanese government of being “scared stiff” of gambling companies, broadcasters and major sporting codes who are terrified of even the slightest regulations being introduced to their business models.
Almost 18 months since an inquiry, led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, sternly recommended a three-year phase-in period for a total ban on gambling ads, the Albanese government has delayed these urgent reforms until after the Christmas break.
Senator David Pocock, a former professional sportsman himself, has called the government “gutless” – and the news has surely permeated throughout households of Australian families that have been devastated by the vice grip that the sportsbetting giants have over Australian men.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, claims to be consulting on a proposal for gambling ads to limited to two an hour in general TV programming, which is humorous because most people aren’t watching general TV programming anymore. Live streaming of sporting matches has not been included in any of the phases, but this is probably because the government is so out of touch with average voters that they aren’t really aware of the mass migration away from free-to-air television ever since the nation stopped caring about daily case numbers.
Meanwhile, some of Labor’s backbench MPs have been lobbying for a total ban. The inverse of this is the Opposition backbench who are demanding that nothing is done at all, as they hold out hope for some high-paying board positions at one of the many tax-evading online gambling giants when they retired.
All the while, voters are still losing everything because the synthetic endorphin hits programmed into the brains of everyday Aussie men by predatory and overwhelming advertising means that hundreds of thousands of dads are betting away mortgage repayments on the Singapore greyhounds from a phone that they are hiding down the side of the bed at 3AM.
Elsewhere in Parliament, it looks as if Peter Dutton might actually support a government bill for this first time since he took over leadership. Social media bans for children could be introduced by the end of the week.
This may be because kids aged under 16 do not vote, and therefore pose much less of a risk to the government’s electability than the racing lobby, the gambling and gaming lobby, limping legacy media publishers who would be facing full blown bankruptcy if the cash injection of predatory gambling ads were taken from them.