Ahead of Australia‘s election, independent MPs are pressuring the Labor government to continue reforming gambling laws. They believe progress has stalled after years of parliamentary debate and inquiries.
Betting and gambling, and their social impacts, have hit Australian headlines in recent weeks. This comes ahead of the upcoming general election on May 3, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese‘s Labor Party will be looking to retain its majority.
As the agitation gathers momentum, a recent report in The Sydney Morning Herald indicated that some policy decisions have been made among Labor cabinet members regarding Albanese’s decision to delay gambling reforms until the 2025 election.
Independent MPs – known in Australia as “teal independents” due to having broadly similar political agendas despite not being members of any particular party – have responded with criticism of the government on social media.
Allegra Spender, MP for Wentworth in New South Wales, wrote on X: “We can’t keep abandoning good policy for safe politics. The government should have acted to ban gambling ads already. It’s clear they will only have the courage if there are strong independent voices in the next parliament.”
Albanese first delayed the reforms in November 2024, largely out of a desire to avoid a clash with betting companies, media and sporting bodies ahead of the election.
Reform has been long overdue in Australia, with a parliamentary inquiry examining the impact of gambling on society in 2022. Like other established markets such as the UK, Australia also has widespread public discontent with gambling advertising, particularly around sport.
The late Labor MP Peta Murphy was tasked with leading a federal inquiry into gambling as part of the party’s 2022 election manifesto. The report was published in 2023 with several key recommendations, including a three-year phased plan to ultimately ban all forms of online gambling advertising in Australian media.
Not everyone in government supports a blanket ban, however. Albanese himself appears reluctant to do so, arguing for a more “calibrated” approach, but MPs and ministers want to see a major crackdown. The Herald understands that some government insiders believe the Prime Minister is being too cautious.
The statements in X, shared by Kate Chancey, the MP for Curtin in Western Australia and a former member of the parliamentary gambling committee, and David Pocock, a former Australian rugby union player and senator for the Australian Capital Territory, show the frustration of some independents with the government’s progress.
However, some MPs have gone further, directly targeting the government for being too closely linked to Australia’s vast betting and gambling industry.
The issue of poker machines or “pokey” – the term for electronic gambling machines that are widespread across the country, similar to the FOBT machines found in betting shops on the UK high street – has been a particular concern for many MPs and advocacy groups.
“The government is very quick to make the point that poker machines, the regulation of poker machines, is a state and territory government responsibility,” said independent Andrew Wilkie, MP for Clark in Tasmania, in a recorded statement shared on X earlier today.
“The federal government just uses that constantly as a copout to explain why it’s not their problem that the labor party is associated with numerous large clubs operating poker machines.
“There’s such a conflict of interest there with the Labor party. I’d be hard pressed to think of a political party in any other country in the world that is so substantial and directly beneficially associated with gambling.”
As in the UK and other countries, donations and gifts to political candidates and parties have also come under scrutiny in Australia in recent years. The gifting of tickets to sporting events to MPs, for example, was called out in the media last year.
In more recent developments, politicians in the Northern Territory have been calling for the state government to ban betting firms from giving gifts to the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission (NTRWC), arguing that this is a conflict of interest.
As Australians prepare to make up their minds at the polls, gambling looks set to be a big political battleground. Supporting pro-reform candidates are groups like the Alliance for Gambling Reform, which has been actively campaigning across the country.
In contrast, various industry stakeholders as well those in media and sports, will likely want to see candidates with more relaxed views on advertising win seats – though some sports organisations, like South Sydney Rabbitohs and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs of the National Rugby League (NRL), have been distancing themselves from betting in recent years.
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