Punted: How media companies and big sport fought gambling reform — and won

This article is an instalment in a new series, Punted, on the government’s failure to reform gambling advertising.

With polls showing around 70% of Australians want a ban on gambling advertising and more than 60% want a ban on gambling sports sponsorship, the fact that Labor has taken a year to produce a half-baked set of proposed regulations speaks volumes about who really counts in Canberra — not voters, but media companies and big sporting bodies.

Media companies and sporting bodies have succeeded in derailing the push for gambling advertising bans, sparked by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy last year and partly backed by Peter Dutton’s opposition.

In his budget reply in May 2023, Dutton first proposed a ban on gambling advertising during and for an hour either side of matches.