The Government has now released its formal response to the Australian parliament’s inquiry into online gambling and gambling advertising. The response was tabled in Parliament at about 4pm on the Tuesday afternoon that most of Parliamentary press pack were locked in a room without their phones or laptops so that they could read an advanced copy of the budget.
Tue 12 May 2026 22.00 AEST
Photo: Andrew Wilkie, independent member for Clark (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
The Australian Government has now released its formal response to the Australian parliament’s inquiry into online gambling and gambling advertising. The response was tabled in Parliament at about four o’clock on the Tuesday afternoon that most of Parliamentary press pack were locked in a room without their phones or laptops so that they could read an advanced copy of the budget.
If that was a way of ‘taking out the trash’ and making sure as few people as possible saw whatever the Government was trying to hide, it didn’t stop the story leading major news bulletins throughout the day. The Government will be hoping that now the Budget is public, the conversation will move on.
Australians have waited almost three years for the Government’s response.
The inquiry into the harms caused by online gambling, commonly known as the Murphy review after the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who chaired the inquiry, was released in June 2023. Through the inquiry, Murphy achieved a rare consensus in Australian politics – ambitious reforms taking on vested interests that were backed by every parliamentarian on the committee, Labor, Liberal and independent alike. As the final report makes clear: “Australians do not like being flooded by messages and inducements to gamble online and worry about the effect this is having on children and young people.”
The report made 31 recommendations, which include a total ban on all forms of advertising for gambling phased in over three years. If the government had acted quickly, the gambling ads that saturate Australian TV, computer, and phone screens would now be a thing of the past.
Other recommendations included establishing Commonwealth responsibility for the harms caused by online gambling, through a national regulator and a single government minister. As it stands, the de-facto regulator of Australia’s online gambling is the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission, which has been accused of being ineffective and having conflicts of interest. The idea was that these reforms would be funded through a levy imposed on the online gambling industry.
So – three years on – what has the government got to say about the $50 billion online gambling industry? Rather than a ban on advertising, it has announced certain restrictions that will see fewer gambling ads in front of Australian eyeballs. This includes:
These reforms are welcome, but they stop well short of the ban that the Murphy Review recommended. Do gambling advertisements stop being harmful after 8:30pm? Do children stop listening to the radio after 4pm?
Aside from ads, the Government’s response includes a range of proposals, including:
If they are to be implemented, many of these reforms will have to first pass through Parliament.
The response flies in the face of the widespread public support for genuine gambling reform. Polling just released by The Australia Institute shows that three in four Australians (77%) would support a ban on gambling advertisements. This includes the majority of voters across the political spectrum, as follows:
Gambling inflicts enormous harm on the Australian community. Australians are the biggest gamblers in the world, and lose over $31 billion to gambling every year. In addition to the financial losses, gambling problems are linked to suicide and family violence. Problem gamblers lose their jobs, homes and families to their addiction.
To make matters worse, analysis by the Australia Institute shows that large numbers of Australians start gambling well before they reach the legal minimum age of 18. Almost one in three 12-17-year-olds gamble (30 per cent), and this increases to almost half (46 per cent) when young people turn 18. This means that Australian teenagers are more likely to gamble than they are to play any of the most popular team sports.
As long-time gambling reform advocate and Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said in his response to the Albanese Government’s announcement:
“No wonder big swathes of the community are recoiling from the ALP and Coalition parties, not that I hold any hope that the ascendant One Nation party would be any better on gambling reform. A pox on all of them.”
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