We all have stories of someone whose gambling addiction has led to trauma, life savings lost or families torn apart. And now, with the advent of social media and smartphones and with an increase in TV advertising for sports betting, gambling is more accessible than ever. It is increasingly in your face. Children are seeing it on the TVs in their lounge rooms and they are hearing it on the radio at school pick-up. Young men are seeing it on their phones constantly. Whether you're watching arch rivals Geelong and Hawthorn in an epic battle or listening to the game on the radio, you'd be hard pressed to avoid hearing or seeing a gambling ad. It may be a former player plugging a multi or simply the odds flashing up on the screen.

This form of gambling, advertising is all pervasive and is now part of our sporting culture, but it has real and potentially damaging impacts on children, families and everyday Australians. It's time for change. That's what my communities have increasingly been saying to me, and in turn I, along with many of my parliamentary colleagues, have pushed for more action.

This bill is the result of much advocacy and consultation. It introduces strong, robust laws that will better protect Australians from the impact of gambling addiction while ensuring people can still responsibly have a punt. These laws are designed to break the connection between wagering and sport, to minimise children's exposure to the harm of wagering advertising and to reduce the saturation and targeting of wagering advertising.

The world has changed. Gambling used to require a deliberate decision to walk into a TAB, buy a ticket or place a bet. Today, a betting account can sit on the same phone as a person's banking app, social media messages and news. The bookmaker's in your pocket. The advertisement can follow you around. The odds can appear during the game, before the game and after the game, and the boundary between watching sport and participating in gambling has become increasingly blurred. When gambling becomes part of the ordinary language of sport, we risk teaching the next generation that betting is simply part of being a sports fan. That is not a lesson I want Australian children to learn, and it is not a lesson parents should have to fight against every time they sit down to watch their favourite sport.

The evidence heard by the parliamentary inquiry chaired by my former colleague the late member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy, was very clear on this point. Peta chaired the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into online gambling and its impact on people experiencing gambling harm. The committee heard evidence about the normalisation of gambling through advertising in sport, the exposure of children and young people and the increasingly sophisticated ways gambling companies market their products. It made 31 recommendations. Its report, You win some, you lose more, made a point that remains incredibly powerful: Australians should be able to enjoy sport for the sport itself.

Peta and the committee listened to people who had experienced gambling harm, and to experts, industry and sporting organisations, and put forward a serious reform agenda. This bill acts on that work. The reforms will restrict gambling advertising on television during live sport at specified times, with frequency caps outside those periods. They will restrict gambling advertising on radio during school drop-off and pick-up times and place restrictions on online gambling advertising. They will also remove gambling advertising from sporting venues and uniforms and restrict the use of celebrities, athletes and influencers to promote gambling.

That last point is particularly important. When an advertisement comes from a bookmaker, we understand that the bookmaker wants our money. But when it comes from a former player, a celebrity or an influencer a young person may follow every day, it can feel like a recommendation. It can feel like part of the culture. And that is precisely why these reforms matter. We should not underestimate the power of repetition. A single gambling advertisement is one thing. But when Australians see gambling advertising again and again and again, the cumulative effect is very different. That is why reducing saturation matters. It's why protecting children matters, and it's why breaking the connection between sport and gambling matters.

This bill also recognises that gambling harm is not confined to advertising. BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register, has provided an important mechanism for Australians to exclude themselves from online wagering. Since its launch, tens of thousands of Australians addicted to gambling have used it. For these people, it is one of the hardest and most important decisions they will make. We know that self-exclusion registers work, but more people need to know about it. The statutory review found awareness of BetStop is very low. Only around one in four people were aware of it, and even among people who had placed a bet in the previous 12 months, awareness was only around one in three. That's just not good enough, and it's why we are strengthening BetStop and will continue to work to raise awareness of this vital service.

We also need to recognise that the internet has created new forms of gambling that our existing regulatory framework was never designed to deal with. Online keno is one example. The government's proposal to ban online keno is an important step, so too are measures dealing with foreign matched lotteries and fake trade promotion lotteries. These products exploit regulatory gaps, put consumers at risk and undermine legitimate Australian businesses, newsagents and charities.

Measures to disrupt illegal offshore gambling operators are equally important. There's little point having strong consumer protections in Australia if operators can establish themselves offshore and target Australians from outside our regulatory system. The laws we are introducing today will help keep pace with the products being developed and the technology being used to sell them.

This is not about taking away individual freedoms and responsibilities. This matters, but responsibility does not just sit with the individual. It also sits with gambling companies, social media platforms, sporting organisations and government. For too long, Australians have been asked to carry too much of the responsibility themselves. This is not a sustainable approach. This bill recognises that harm minimisation is not about waiting until someone has lost everything. It is about early intervention, it is about reducing exposure, it is about making it easier for people to step away, and it is also about ensuring commercial incentives are held at bay.

I want to acknowledge the people who have advocated for these reforms over many years: addicted gamblers who have spoken publicly about their experiences despite the stigma and judgement; people who have lost family members; people who have supported partners, parents, children and friends through gambling harm; people who work in counselling and financial support; my communities and branch members; and people like Peta Murphy, who brought those voices into this parliament and insisted that we listen. Their contributions matter. They have helped to drive these reforms. They represent an important shift—a shift away from accepting gambling advertising as simply the price we pay for watching sport and a shift towards strong and effective laws that keep pace with an ever changing digital world.

The reforms will commence from 1 January next year, and I know our nation will be better for it. They will include restricting gambling advertising on broadcast television to no more than three ads each hour between 6 am and 8.30 pm, with a complete ban during live sport broadcasts within those hours, banning gambling promotion by celebrities, athletes and influencers, banning advertising on sporting jerseys and in stadiums, banning ads on radio at school pick up and drop off, banning online advertising and enabling opt out functions. The online ban applies to any site or platform, including social media, news websites, Spotify, podcasts, streaming services and YouTube, and it will be up to online platforms to implement these restrictions. If they choose not to, they will face severe penalties.

Last week's Senate inquiry showed us the most toxic versions of inducements, and our government condemns those alleged actions in the strongest terms. In constructing this bill, the Albanese government has listened to community concerns on inducements, and we are continuing to work with the parliament to further strengthen protections. I hope our negotiations with the opposition will be positive.

Australians should be able to sit down with their families and watch their favourite team without being bombarded by gambling advertising. Children should be able to grow up loving sport without being taught that sport and gambling are inseparable. Adults at risk of gambling harm need to have access to resources and supports to confront and overcome their addiction. And gambling companies need to be more accountable. At the end of the day, we must all work to better protect people from the harms and impacts of gambling. That is what this bill sets out to achieve. Australians should be able to love their sport for what it is: the contest, the skill, the drama and the connection to community—not the odds. I commend the bill to the House.