It’s not just the bookies hailing the new gambling laws as a win

August 22, 2026 — 5:00am

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Here’s a puzzle. The Albanese government has shown that it has the pluck to confront the world’s biggest vested interests. That’s what it did with its social media ban for under-16s.

It led the world in doing so. It not only defied the bluster and threats of big tech, it also risked the wrath of the US government. Donald Trump has sworn to protect the interests of the American tech bros and to smash any country that gets in their way.

And now the Albanese government is forging ahead with further measures, including the news media bargaining incentive, a levy on the foreign tech companies to oblige them to pay for the Australian news journalism they draw on. It was legislated in Canberra this week.

Next is the Albanese government’s proposed digital duty of care. This would require the tech companies to head off harm, at the wholesale level, before it’s done, rather than the current ambulance-like system of trying to make amends after the event, at the retail level.

These are commendable measures to civilise an industry that wantonly empowers some of the most uncivilised forces from humanity’s darkest reaches.

The puzzle: where was this courage when it came to gambling ads? The same government, with the support of the Coalition, this week legislated its much-delayed response to the Labor-led inquiry into online gambling and the ads that promote it.

The process of legislating aroused great passion. Many MPs were uneasy, even angry, at the feebleness of the reforms.

Although the bills were Labor’s, toughened by Liberal amendments, they were denounced fiercely by some Labor MPs. And five Liberal MPs, across both House and Senate, crossed the floor to vote against them, an unusual outbreak of dissent.

They were bitterly disappointed because they benchmarked the bills before them against the 2023 parliamentary inquiry to which the government was responding. That inquiry reported that, per person, Australians lose more money on online punting than any other people on Earth. Which is not the problem in itself.

“Gambling advertising is grooming children and young people to gamble and encourages riskier behaviour,” wrote the parliamentary inquiry’s chair, the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, on delivering her 2023 report. “The torrent of........

© The Age