Australian opposition leader intensifies pressure on the government to restrict gambling ads

Peter Dutton, leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, has further cranked up the pressure on the Australian government to restrict gambling advertising during sports broadcasts.

During a speech in reply to the budget last Thursday, Dutton argued the “bombardment of betting ads” is “changing the culture of our country in a bad way and normalising gambling at a young age”.

Dutton joins a cross-party call for further restriction on advertising as the Green Party and several independent members have been pushing for restrictions. 

He went on to say that if the Liberals were in power as part of a coalition government he would ban advertising during the broadcasting of games and for an hour either side of the respective match.

Dutton also called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to cooperate with the Liberals on this initiative. 

In response to this message, in an interview with the Guardian Australia, PM Albanese spoke of his personal dislike of the current level of gambling advertising during matches and confirmed that a review into the issue is underway.

He did not comment directly on any potential government plans to ban the advertising, though. 

Albanese did say how he was surprised at Dutton’s viewpoint, given the coalition “did nothing for nine years on any of those issues”.

He pointed out that the government has been proactive concerning issues raised regarding the gambling industry since coming into power.

Albanese said: “We’ve been in government for a year, and we’ve got a review that we initiated after we’ve already changed the advertising guidelines and strengthened them regarding any advertising for gambling.”

He also added that the government has brought in new mandatory responsible gambling messaging on ads, banned the use of credit cards for online gambling and restricted gambling-like activity in video games. 

There would, of course, be staunch opposition from both the gambling industry and broadcasters if an advertising ban was introduced. 

In response to Dutton’s proposal, Free TV executive Bridget Fair commented: “We are concerned that the opposition’s proposal is not evidence-based and will disproportionately hurt local broadcasters.”

Fair went on to say that her group had engaged well with the inquiry. “We acknowledge the need to balance consumer protection with the public interest in a sustainable local media sector and have supported an evidence-based approach on these issues, which are currently being considered by the committee,” she said

“There is no evidence that large numbers of children are watching sport late at night or in the hour before and after sporting events, in fact quite the contrary,” Fair added.