Patricia Karvelas: Let’s bring in the Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson. Welcome to the program.
Senator Henderson: Patricia, great to join you.
Patricia Karvelas: Big announcement after three years of not telling us what they’ll do, what did you make of it?
Senator Henderson: Well we welcome this action on gambling reform but it has been more than 1000 days. The government has been basically dithering, delaying and that’s just not good enough. Gambling does enormous harm right across this country and there’s gambling companies which target children. And so while we will scrutinise the detail, I do have some concerns. I know in the Prime Minister’s release he says he’ll be banning gambling ads through online platforms except, of course, if you’re over 18 and you opt in. But I am concerned about this ban online because we know that the social media ban has not worked as the government promised. And so I’m really concerned that again, we will see children exposed to this sort of harm because this government has made a big promise. But I’m not sure that it will be able to deliver.
Patricia Karvelas: It will be hard to deliver. Using those platforms, Meta, the others, they will have to put in this opt in button, essentially. I quizzed the Minister about that earlier, she said that they would be required to follow the law and that it would be a requirement on them. Isn’t that on those companies if they don’t follow our law?
Senator Henderson: Well, Patricia, it is but the problem is that the law – say for the social media ban – there are so many gaps with the legislation and children are also using workarounds. They’re using VPNs. They’re not telling the truth about their age. And so while the big tech platforms have got a very big job to do to remove children online, and they haven’t been doing a good enough job in many respects, I’m really concerned that many children are going to fall through the cracks. So this is a big announcement, as I say, more than 1000 days where we have seen no action from this Prime Minister. And what’s also very disappointing is three years ago we put forward a bill to extend the blackout on gambling advertising on television. The Labor Party voted against our proposal and now today, in an act of gross hypocrisy, the Prime Minister has announced a very similar policy to the one that he voted against three years ago.
Patricia Karvelas: The other part of this is three ads an hour can be played that comes down from eight. Why three? Does three sound reasonable to you?
Senator Henderson: Well we haven’t seen any more detail than what has been announced today, so we’ll need to scrutinise that including, of course, whether this means that there will be some sort of offset because free-to-air television is due to lose a lot of revenue. Now we committed that that we would exempt them from the commercial broadcasting tax which costs free-to-air television about $50 million a year. The government has been silent on that and we know Australians love free-to-air. They love ABC and SBS but they love their free-to-air television. And so if this is imperilling free-to-air, this announcement has not been made, I would be very concerned.
Patricia Karvelas: Okay and you have reached out to the Minister, you’ve contacted her directly?
Senator Henderson: I’ve just been missing phone calls with her office, so I will be seeking a further briefing. But the devil is in the detail and I am concerned. Online gambling ads create enormous revenues for the betting companies and for the sporting codes. And I am really concerned that this promise of protecting children will not be effective in practice.
Patricia Karvelas: I always find the distinction between children and adults problematic in so much as adults who are harmed, I think matter too. I mean adults who are once children. That is a distinction that is consistently drawn with the social media laws with gambling. Don’t we need to be doing more than what’s been proposed here for adults?
Senator Henderson: Well look, we think we do have to get the balance right. So we didn’t support a complete ban right across the board. But I am concerned that what the government has promised is just not good enough – and also whether even their Betstop mechanism that they have, there’s a lot of concerns about whether that is working. We do know that we must do much more as a country and Australians expect much more from their government. The late Peta Murphy, handed down that report three years ago and it is very embarrassing that the government has done so little and it’s taken so long to announce any action.
Patricia Karvelas: The Murphy review wanted a national regulator to look at all of this. The government isn’t introducing a national regulator. Was that a mistake?
Senator Henderson: Well we don’t really know the government’s thoughts because they still haven’t responded to the Murphy review, which is just not good enough either. The Prime Minister indicated today that would be coming but of course, he was also speaking about making decisions in cabinet this morning in relation to this. So I think this Prime Minister has been caught napping, as has the communications minister. And Australians deserve a lot better, Patricia.
Patricia Karvelas: Just on a few other issues, Angus Taylor will deliver his response his address to the nation tonight which he can do under the legislation, he’s going to take that option. Your side of politics and Angus Taylor accused the Prime Minister of wasting the nation’s time. So is Angus Taylor wasting the nation’s time too well?
Senator Henderson: I was quite surprised by the Prime Minister’s address last night – because we have been prosecuting the case for many weeks that we had an urgent crisis with fuel in this country. And we were mocked and laughed at by the government, they were not listening to farmers, to regional communities, to Australians right across the board as this fuel crisis grew. So I’m sure that Angus will have a lot more to say of substance than we heard from the Prime Minister last night.
Patricia Karvelas: But you get what I mean, about the time wasting? I mean, if it’s time wasting for one, isn’t it time wasting for the other?
Senator Henderson: I don’t think so. I mean, we put forward a very important policy to halve the fuel tax. We’ve seen the Prime Minister following as the Coalition has led. We’ve led on a whole range of policy initiatives including saying to the government, please give Australians cost of living relief. We announced our policy and the Prime Minister followed on that. And now, of course, we still don’t know how the government is working to get fuel to petrol stations. So I think the contribution the Coalition has made, led by Angus, has been very substantial and I’m sure he’ll have a very meaningful address tonight.
Patricia Karvelas: Thank you so much for joining us.
Senator Henderson: Thanks, Patricia.