Gambling Advertising

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. C. Bonaros:

That this council—

1. Notes the Malinauskas government has returned train services to public ownership;

2. Recognises that public trains, buses, and trams are key spaces where children, young people, and other vulnerable individuals are regularly exposed to advertising;

3 Recognises that the availability, exposure and accessibility of gambling products can either exacerbate or mitigate gambling harm, and that restricting advertising can help minimise this risk;

4. Notes the recent commitment of the New South Wales government to ban gambling advertising on state-owned and controlled assets, including internal and external advertising on trains, buses, trams and associated infrastructure, following a broader ban introduced by the Victorian government in 2017;

5. Acknowledges that reducing gambling advertising would have positive social and economic benefits for the South Australian community; and

6. Calls on the Malinauskas government to take decisive action to reduce gambling harm by banning gambling advertising on public transport spaces across South Australia.

(Continued from 5 February 2025.)

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (21:30): I would like to thank the Hon. Connie Bonaros for her advocacy on this. The government supports the intent of the honourable member's motion, and I understand that the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and his department would also like to say thank you—thank you—and are currently investigating options relating to the intent of the member's motion.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (21:31): I rise to indicate my support for this motion from the Hon. Connie Bonaros. I want to recognise her work on this issue of phasing out pokies over many years. We did have a discussion about this on the radio recently where—

The Hon. C. Bonaros: We seem to have been doing a lot of that lately.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: We do—where I indicated my intention on behalf of the Greens to campaign heading into the next election to phase out pokies by 2030.

The Hon. C. Bonaros: Pokie machines.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Pokie machines—thank you—poker machines, and I am disappointed that the Labor government have delivered yet another budget that is predicated on pokies revenue. One of the areas that we need to address is the advertising of gambling, which is what the motion from the Hon. Connie Bonaros is seeking to address.

This motion builds on the approach that the Malinauskas government has taken recently with respect to banning junk food advertising on public transport. Indeed, members may recall that I had a bill before parliament to ban junk food advertising on public transport and other public infrastructure. The bill was not supported by the government, but they did indicate that they would look into the issue, and I welcomed the fact that they took action.

Back in January, the Minister for Health, the Hon. Chris Picton, announced that the Malinauskas government would be banning junk food advertising on all public transport. I think that is a really good outcome. In particular, one of my concerns was around the exposure of children to junk food advertising, and this is a really good way of limiting that exposure.

I do agree with the Hon. Connie Bonaros that the missing piece of the puzzle is, of course, gambling advertising. It is appalling that we could see gambling being promoted on public transport and indeed I think on other forms of public infrastructure as well, so I am certainly supportive of this motion. I see this as being an important step in reducing some of the harm associated with gambling.

But, of course, we will continue to campaign to go further—to end pokie machines here in our state. I think this will be a key issue heading into the next state election.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (21:34): I rise to indicate the opposition's support for this motion brought forward by the Hon. Connie Bonaros. Our public transport system is a space that is used—

The Hon. C. Bonaros: Support?

The Hon. B.R. HOOD: Yes. Our public transport system is a space that is used by children, by teenagers and vulnerable South Australians everyday. These are very highly visible public assets, and what appears on them does matter. We know that gambling harm is serious, and it is a growing issue in this country. Nationally, around 30 per cent of children aged between 12 and 17 report having gambled in the past year. By the age of 18 and 19, that figure jumps to nearly 50 per cent. Australians lose over $31 billion to gambling every year.

Young people are more likely to be exposed to gambling advertising and more likely to engage in impulsive or risky gambling behaviour as a result. There is clear evidence that advertising does normalise gambling and contributes to harm, especially among young people. That is why both Victoria and NSW have taken steps to ban gambling advertising across their public transport networks. With this motion brought by the honourable member, South Australia now has the ability to do the same.

The government has already moved on a ban for so-called junk food advertising on public transport. That ban also extended to items as specific as ham sandwiches. I remember a bit of a discussion on FIVEaa with the minister and Penbo talking about deli meats and how we are going to keep them off public transport advertising. If we are prepared to block ads for deli meats, then maybe we should be prepared to block ads for gambling.

This motion asks the government to take the same approach to gambling advertising as it has done with junk food. It is a consistent step. We think it is based on public health evidence and aligned to actions already taken in other jurisdictions. The government owns the assets, it has the authority, and we think that there is a strong public case for this reform, so we support the motion.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (21:37): I rise to support the Hon. Connie Bonaros' attempt to ban gambling ads on our public transport in this state. I think it is highly commendable. We have done it with other areas that cause harm. You would not contemplate in this day and age seeing a smoking ad on the side of our public transport, and you should not be able to contemplate seeing gambling advertising either. I welcome the fact that she has brought this debate before this place, so that the parliament may have its views heard and hopefully understood by government.

The Hon. C. BONAROS (21:37): I am a bit nervous that something is going to come tonight, because it all seems to be going very smoothly up until now. I am very grateful to all speakers, to the government, for their support. I would like to thank the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, who I have worked with closely on this particular issue, but I would like, via the Hon. Russell Wortley, to send a special thanks to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport for seeing the light and the benefits of healthy advertising over revenue.

I would also like to thank the Hon. Rob Simms, the Hon. Jing Lee—because I know she supports it—and the Hon. Ben Hood. I feel like common sense has prevailed tonight, and that is a good thing. When I moved this motion, in all seriousness, I did say that you could literally pick up the words of the Malinauskas government release on junk food bans and replace the words 'junk food' with 'gambling' and the exact same message would apply. It made sense to me, and I do acknowledge the work that the Hon. Rob Simms did in that space when it came to junk food advertising.

It made sense to me that we should be doing what the other states are doing—NSW and Victoria in particular—and banning gambling advertising for all the reasons the Hon. Ben Hood has outlined tonight, and that other honourable members have outlined tonight as well. There is no place for it.

We do not need to see trams going up and down North Terrace with great big gambling advertisements wrapped around them, or any public infrastructure for that matter, whether it is a tram or otherwise. When it comes to our transport services, we have better things to advertise on them than gambling, especially given the impact that they have on kids each and every day. There were some reports done just recently in terms of the number of ads that kids see on TV when it comes to online betting, sports betting and whatnot.

I remind honourable members while I am on this winning streak that there is another bill before parliament that seeks to address that specific issue, as well as one that seeks to address the issue of poker machines. However, it is not just those ads that they are seeing on TV. They catch transport to and from school each day and they get that constant reminder, and that is how you normalise gambling.

I have had lots of online debates while I have been working through this with members of the public, but all these things are geared towards one thing and one thing only: it is getting young kids from that age accustomed to and normalising gambling so that when they turn 18 they can legally put their money in a poker machine or another form of gambling, and we make it mainstream. We do not want kids to be doing that. We do not want to be normalising that sort of behaviour.

In Australia, and particularly in South Australia, we have the highest rate of gamblers in the world on a per capita basis. That is not anything to be proud of. I think that this is a very sensible measure aimed specifically at children. I am very grateful to all honourable members for their support and I look forward to its implementation by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport very soon.

Motion carried.