The former Liberal MP Jenny Ware has condemned her one-time Coalition colleagues for backing Labor’s gambling legislation, claiming “vulnerable Australians have been let down”, as the parliament failed to back a full ban on wagering ads.
Ware, a member of the Peta Murphy-led inquiry in 2023 that recommended entirely ending wagering advertising and inducements, called gambling a public health crisis that demanded a much stronger response from both sides of politics.
“Vulnerable Australians deserve better than political convenience dressed up as consensus,” she told Guardian Australia.
“Australians deserve better on gambling reform that should meet the scale of the harm.”
Labor’s gambling reforms passed parliament on Wednesday night. Described by the government as the strongest wagering legislation ever enacted, TV ads will be limited to three an hour between 5am and 8.30pm, online ads will only be shown to those over 18 and with a mandatory opt-out option, advertising on players’ jerseys and sporting stadiums will eventually be banned, and there will be new restrictions on inducements, celebrity endorsements and employee commissions from gambling losses.
But there are questions over how a new “opt-out register” will work, with sources in the wagering, tech and media industries saying they were blind-sided by that announcement, which only came on Monday. Wagering operators – who are obliged to pay for the register’s development – have said they are anxious to know how the website will be developed, and how much they will have to pay.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the communications minister, Anika Wells, said the reforms aimed to protect the most vulnerable from harm while balancing the rights of Australians to gamble if they wished. The government decided not to impose a full ban on online gambling ads and inducements, as Murphy – the late Labor MP who died in 2023 – had recommended in her report.
Ware, a member of Murphy’s committee, said the parliament – and her former Coalition colleagues – should have done more, saying “the full suite” of Murphy’s recommendations should have been enacted, including a national gambling regulator and a full ad ban.
Murphy’s husband, Rod Glover, also spoke this week of his “mixed emotions” at the legislation’s passage, praising some reforms but saying it was “far from everything that is needed”.
Ware said: “The legislation that passed this week falls far short of the report’s recommendations.
“Gambling harm is a national public health crisis hiding in plain sight. The government lacks the morality and political courage that Australians expect on this.”
She praised a handful of her former Coalition colleagues, including Andrew Wallace and Pat Conaghan, who had crossed the floor to vote against the legislation and called for more action, and said some amendments pursued by cross-benchers should have been taken up.
“It is deeply disappointing that the federal opposition voted with the government to block stronger, evidence-based protections led by cross-benchers,” Ware said.
“I met personally with families who had lost loved ones to gambling-related suicide – families the prime minister declined to meet. Their stories were heartbreaking and courageous, and they deserve more than partial reform pushed through for political expediency by the major parties.”
Albanese on the ABC’s 7.30 said he believed Labor had “got the balance right” on its reforms.
“We have worked constructively with the entire sector, including I’ve sat down with the people who are part of the anti-gambling industry, sat down with sporting organisations. I haven’t sat down with the betting industry. But I’ve sat down with others, including, of course, the free-to-air networks who have arrangements in place,” he said.
“I think it’s very positive reform, whilst acknowledging that the problem isn’t someone having a bet on a Saturday if that’s what they do.”
Wells on Friday marked three years of the BetStop self-exclusion register, which she said had seen 67,000 total registrations and 41,000 currently on the register. Nearly 80% of all registrations were people aged under 40, and 38% had registered for a lifetime ban from access to gambling operators.
This week’s legislation includes moves to strengthen BetStop, including obligating gambling providers to fund an awareness campaign for the service.
“BetStop has already made such a huge difference to so many Australians – that’s why we’re taking steps to make it even stronger and more effective and working to raise awareness of this vital service,” Wells said.
