JOINT RELEASE
Senator Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister Assisting on Information Technology
and
Senator Mark Bishop, Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Communications
The Australian Labor Party’s Minority Report to the Inquiry into the Interactive Gambling Bill 2001 was tabled in the Senate today. In their report Labor Senators Mark Bishop (WA) and Kate Lundy (ACT) point out fundamental flaws in the policy approach behind the Bill, and find fault with the drafting of the Bill and implementation of the policy.
Senators Bishop and Lundy said, “The flaws in the Interactive Gambling Bill 2001 are so pervasive that not only will the Bill fail to achieve its stated objectives but it will most likely exacerbate the very harms that it seeks and professes to circumscribe.”
The partial ban on interactive gambling proposed by the Government will not prevent Australians from accessing the plethora of overseas online gambling sites – they are simply a click away for any Internet user.
Instead the Government will allow foreigners to gamble on properly regulated Australian Internet sites while forcing Australians to gamble with unregulated foreign Internet sites which have dubious or no consumer protection or probity and which are suspected of being run by organised criminal elements.
“It is unbelievable that the Government would advocate this Bill as implementing measures that will reduce problem gambling. The evidence discloses that problem gambling in Australia is almost exclusively associated with land-based gambling venues,” concluded Senators Lundy and Bishop.
Senator Bishop said, “Labor Senators’ analysis of the evidence to the inquiry leads to the inevitable conclusion that the Opposition should not support the Government’s Bill. This is because the Bill fails to achieve its stated objectives.”
Labor Senators, by contrast, are concerned to ensure that problem gambling arising from interactive gambling is minimised to the greatest possible extent. We are very concerned that the Government approach implemented by this Bill does not control or limit problem gambling in the online environment nor does it overcome any of the problems associated with interactive gambling.
“There is one policy that will provide Australians with the highest possible degree of protection. Labor Senators have set out a detailed approach to regulating interactive gambling with the overriding objective of protecting Australians from the potential harms and problem gambling that could arise from gambling through new media,” said Senator Lundy.
Labor’s approach is the only practical way to minimise resultant social harm from interactive gambling, including criminal harm. This approach will also maximise the benefits that will flow to consumers, the racing, gambling and IT industries, and the Australia economy.
“Only Labor will confront the issues to deliver a sensible policy that will restrict problem gambling to the absolute minimum.”
Click here for a summary of the findings and recommendations of Labor Senators.
61/01 Media inquiries: Simon Tatz (Office of Senator Kate Lundy): 02 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295, Senator Mark Bishop: 02 6277 3101 or 0419 959 892
