Labor, Coalition agree gambling can police itself. Good luck with that

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has secured a spot atop Anthony Albanese’s Christmas card list.

The Coalition spokeswoman for communications has spent years attacking the government over gambling. Now she has helped the prime minister neutralise one of Labor’s awkward political problems.

Labor’s caucus signed off on a deal with the Coalition that creates a register for people to opt out of being shown gambling advertising online, funded by a levy on betting companies and subject to review after three years.

Live television will face slightly tighter restrictions than planned. Gambling ads will be banned for 15 minutes before a match – ads during play are already banned – and the three-ads-per-hour limit will begin an hour earlier than first proposed, at 5am.

There are also new restrictions on inducements. New betting customers will face a 14-day wait before being offered bonus bets or similar incentives. People leaving BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, will face a 90-day wait to return to betting. Wagering companies must identify risk indicators and cannot offer inducements to customers at risk.

Reform advocates are furious. They point to Senate evidence of gamblers being offered thousands of dollars in free bets despite obvious signs of problem behaviour.

The industry is being asked to police itself. Good luck with that.

For years, the Albanese government has been accused of being too close to gambling interests.

Nothing proved that more than when former communications minister Michelle Rowland received $19,000, including an $8960 dinner at Rockpool, from Sportsbet on the eve of the 2022 election when she was shadow minister in charge of online betting.

It took three years to respond to the landmark Murphy inquiry, which called for a phased ban on all online gambling advertising and a prohibition on betting inducements.

When the government finally did, the response came during the budget lockup when attention was elsewhere, and it produced a package that immediately came under pressure from the opposition, Greens, crossbench and its own backbench and grassroots members.

The churches hated it and so too welfare groups such as the Wesley Mission, which are at the front line of picking up the pieces of broken lives in a country where gamblers lose at least $25 billion a year.

And the biggest problem was obvious to all. Gambling advertising would still be visible to children.

But Albanese, desperate to be the friend of sporting codes and media bosses, was always prepared to wear that. He deliberately put Anika Wells into the portfolio knowing she was not going to approach gambling advertising as though the government could simply switch off the commercial relationship between betting, sport and media.

Henderson and the Coalition had vowed to strengthen the bill. Instead, they tinkered around the edges and handed Albanese bipartisan cover.

The whole saga is a study in political self-interest.

One observer recently remarked that Albanese approaches governing like an experienced orderer of yum cha. That is: keep the plates moving, give everyone a little of what they want and avoid the dish that starts a fight.

The media networks, including Nine Entertainment, owner of this masthead, are no better. They have spent years behaving as though protecting gambling advertising revenue is a legitimate government responsibility rather than a commercial problem they might have to solve themselves.

And the politicians have discovered that accommodating everyone is easier than picking a fight with anyone.

Dutton went to the 2025 election with a tougher policy, promising to ban sports betting advertising for an hour before live sport, during the game and for an hour afterwards.

The policy negotiated by Angus Taylor’s opposition is weaker.

While there are some genuine improvements in the package, the central question remains: why should children watching live sport continue to be exposed to gambling advertising?

Murphy had a tougher answer. So did Dutton. The Coalition has now settled for less in return for the government fast-tracking its repeal of the widow’s tax – something Albanese boasted in parliament on Tuesday that Labor was doing anyway.

Liberal MP Andrew Wallace and Nationals colleague Pat Conaghan crossed the floor to vote against the laws. All power to their elbow.

Henderson gets to claim she strengthened Labor’s reforms. In reality, she threw them a liferaft.

Albanese gets to claim bipartisan support, and his government, accused of being too close to gambling interests, gets to declare victory.