Betting ad ban means ‘all news will be via Facebook’, warns Bill Shorten
A blanket ban on gambling advertisements would lead to free-to-air and regional news outlets being ‘killed off’ and ‘all news coming from Facebook’, warns Bill Shorten.
A blanket ban on gambling advertisements would lead to free-to-air and regional news outlets being “killed off” and “all news coming from Facebook”, Bill Shorten has warned.
In comments that echoed Anthony Albanese’s concerns over the “unintended consequences” such a policy could have – which the Prime Minister said would include a rise in illicit sports betting overseas – the Minister for Government Services said a total ban on gambling advertisements risked a significant amount of revenue for traditional news companies.
“I think it’s bad that free-to-air TV has got to a point where gambling revenue is important to it … But you know what? Free-to-air TV is at least a voice of diversity in a world where we’re getting a lot of misinformation,” he told ABC.
“The internet and the social media giants, international organisations who don’t really respect our national laws, they’re killing our domestic news. They’re killing our domestic free-to-air TV … if we don’t have free-to-air TV, what happens then is you’re going to get news from Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
“I’m not going to go into the dying of the night without fighting back against international tech giants giving us their extreme unfilled views with no accountability.”
Mr Shorten slammed criticism the government wasn’t going far enough on gambling reform.
“I want to tackle gambling advertising. And the argument that says that ‘unless you are 100 per cent going to do everything I ever asked for that … you are not fair dinkum’, is rubbish,” he said.
“The government’s looking at sensible … reform and (more) than has ever been done before.”
He pointed to policies such as banning the use of credit cards for betting and setting up a betting exclusionary register as evidence of the government’s commitment to addressing gambling harm.
The debate over whether to implement rigorous bans on gambling advertisement – which has divided Labor and Coalition backbenchers – prompted ACT independent David Pocock to move a motion on Wednesday seeking to make the ban “a matter of urgency”.
“I propose to move that, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need for the Australian government, with the co-operation of the states and territories, to implement a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling, to be introduced in four phases, over three years, commencing immediately,” the motion, seen by The Australian, read.
Senator Pocock slammed the fact the government had been told to ban gambling advertising by a parliamentary committee – headed up by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy – more than 14 months ago and done nothing.
“We’re still seeing the Labor Party falter, not back the Murphy review, not back what almost 80 per cent of Australians want,” he said.
“No one is saying ‘Let’s ban gambling’ … the apps will still be there for people.”
Labor and the Coalition voted against the motion.
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