Source : the age
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese overrode senior minister Michelle Rowland to shelve a clampdown on gambling ads and avoid a brawl with media and sports bosses ahead of the election, in his fourth captain’s call aimed at shutting down controversial policies.
Albanese decided late last year to put on ice the package Rowland had developed over more than a year of talks with gambling companies, the AFL and NRL, and harm-reduction groups, according to two Labor ministers and another two senior Labor sources familiar with the matter.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland wanted to announce the wagering changes and was under public pressure to clamp down on betting ads.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Blocking the gambling ad reforms is the fourth known example of Albanese’s willingness to overrule senior ministers such as Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and assistant minister Andrew Leigh when they were tackling controversial and sensitive policies.
The prime minister can always use the authority of his position to make the final call on all matters of policy. This masthead has already revealed that Albanese has come over the top of Plibersek on environmental protection laws, Dreyfus on mandatory jail terms for hate crimes and antisemitism, and Leigh on sex and gender census questions.
As Labor prepares to revisit the gambling push if it is forced to deal with anti-gambling teal MPs in a hung parliament, news of the prime minister’s direct intervention will reinforce criticisms that the Albanese government is too timid to tackle big reforms.
Rowland was intent on making public the reforms and instituting them in this term before Albanese stepped in, according to the sources who were unwilling to speak on the record about the inner workings of the government.
But with technical details of the proposal still being worked through and resistance growing from influential figures such as the NRL and racing chief Peter V’landys – who told this masthead last year the reforms were “nanny state ideology” – Albanese intervened to shelve the idea until after the May 3 election.
Former foreign minister Gareth Evans said in September that Albanese’s wagering retreat reflected his “cautious, defensive, wedge-avoiding mode”, which Labor MPs privately hope will change if the government is re-elected with a bigger majority.
The cabinet was divided on whether to enact a blanket ban on ads as advocated by late Labor MP Peta Murphy in her 2022 report, with some left-wing ministers such as Plibersek in favour of stronger action, and right-wingers such as Bill Shorten publicly supporting a middle-ground approach that preserved revenue for media and sports.
Rowland’s proposal, revealed by this masthead in August, did not go as far as a full ban but still took the big step of blocking ads online, capping at two the number of TV ads per hour until 10pm, and blocking ads an hour before and after live sport.
“He threw her [Rowland] under a bus,” Tim Costello, a top proponent of a full ban, told this masthead.
Albanese’s office referred this masthead to a spokesperson for Rowland’s office who repeated the prime minister’s defence of the government’s record on gambling reform and noted 38,000 Australians had used the new BetStop program.
Rowland has a relatively low public profile but is a trusted voice inside Labor’s cabinet and a rare communications minister to sit on the powerful expenditure review committee.
Labor ministers and backbenchers who have advocated to realise the dying wishes of their late colleague Murphy expect the push will be revisited in the next term of parliament, particularly if Labor is forced to deal with independents who want gambling promotions decoupled from sport.
Albanese said on April 8 that his government had “taken more action on gambling than any government in history”.
“The register [for addicts to self-exclude] that we’ve established, the first time that has happened. The [ban on using credit cards] … and on directly addressing, getting rid of the benign ‘gamble responsibly’ tag on the end of ads,” he told reporters.
“There’s more to do. But … I’m proud that my government’s done more than any other government ever.”
Albanese did not greenlight Rowland’s plan in part because he believed it was a lose-lose proposition, according to people familiar with his thinking. He suspected the package would be criticised by media and sports organisations hit by revenue losses, while anti-gambling advocates and teal MPs would only be satisfied with a blanket ban on gambling ads.
Labor ministers also feared a backlash from Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media, which broadcasts the AFL in Western Australia where Stokes dominates local media and Labor is desperate to keep seats it won in 2022. Nine Entertainment, which owns this masthead and has a TV rights deal with the NRL, also opposed the gambling clampdown.
Anthony Albanese with Peter V’landys at Leichhardt Oval in June last year.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Albanese has defended the delay on the gambling reforms by emphasising the complexity and unintended consequences of components of the proposal, such as driving Australian punters to bet with offshore online bookmakers.
The AFL, NRL and wagering firms all highlighted the risk of offshore betting in their submissions to Murphy’s inquiry, but Costello noted that Murphy’s final report said such claims were disputed by harm-minimisation groups.
Costello claimed Albanese had used the views of anti-gambling advocates as a pretext to cave to corporate interests. The prime minister said in question time last year that activists want to ban gambling altogether.
“I know that Michelle Rowland wanted to introduce a ban on all social media and progress a national regulator for gambling, and to treat this as a health issue,” Costello said. “She had support from other senior members of cabinet. V’landys is the prime minister when it comes to gambling. He won on this one.”
Contacted for his response, V’landys said: “Tim Costello, as a man of faith, should be better than that. He should play the ball not the players, especially when he is so factually wrong.”
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