TRANSCRIPT – ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING

Angie Bell MP
Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education
Shadow Minister for Youth
Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING

13 August 2024

Subjects: Gambling advertising reform, Digital ID, Albo’s failure on religious discrimination

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

GREG JENNETT:

And we’ll bring in our panel now. Joining us, government front bencher Kristy McBain, right here in the studio. Welcome back, Kristy, and Liberal front bencher, Angie Bell too. Welcome to you, Angie.

We can’t go past gambling advertising restrictions to begin with. Kristy, I wonder if the government allowed expectations to run away since the release of the Social Policy Committee report last year. So we just heard how high the expectations are, at least among crossbenchers and other advocates. Why is it looking so complicated all of a sudden now for the government?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

I think the government has done the most reform in a gambling space in over a decade. We’ve introduced BetStop, where 27,000 people have now self-excluded themselves from gambling. We’ve put a complete ban on the use of credit cards on online gambling. But there’s more work to do in this space. The report was very thorough. Committees are independent, and they will release their reports when they’re ready. They’ve made 31 recommendations, and it’s incumbent upon any good government to make sure that the consultation with everyone involved in that potential dealing with the recommendations is thorough, and that’s exactly what our government’s been doing.

GREG JENNETT:

I’ll come to a question to you, Angie, in just a moment, but one suggestion is that the government might land roughly where the Coalition is, and that is a ban an hour either side of a live sporting event. What difference would that make?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

Look it’s important that there are caps or whatever on gambling advertising. They’re far too prevalent across our TV screens, and particularly for kids. We want to make sure that whatever we do doesn’t have unintended consequences as well. So that’s why there’s wide consultation in the sector, and we’ll continue to do that, as any good government does with any decision they make. You’ve got to make sure that that consultation is there before you act.

GREG JENNETT:

All right, Angie, first question to you coming up on gambling before I ask it, I do just want to update people on news coming, breaking, in fact, from your home state. I’ll do that very quickly. News, just at hand the pilot killed in the helicopter crash, which landed in a Cairns hotel earlier this week was, it’s been confirmed, an employee of the helicopter company.

The helicopter hit the Doubletree Hotel early Monday morning, killing the pilot and injuring an elderly couple in one of the rooms. It’s alleged the chopper was stolen. Nautilus Aviation has released a statement confirming the pilot was a member of the ground crew. The worker held a New Zealand pilot’s license, but had never flown in this country. Nautilus Aviation said the employee was recently promoted to a ground crew position at another base, and was attending a send off with colleagues on Sunday night before Monday mornings crash. So that news just ahead, we wanted to bring it to people.

Sorry about that, Angie, but picking up where we were on gambling advertising, the model proposed by the Coalition is that which we just put to Kristy. What’s so magical about the behavioural effects of banning ads an hour each side of a live event?

ANGIE BELL MP:

We know, Greg, that there’s no doubt gambling is harmful for many Australians, and we need to do something about it. We’ve seen speculation in the press that there may be changes to the laws around gambling. That’s certain, but we haven’t seen the legislation as yet from the government, so we can’t, of course, respond to that… interrupted

GREG JENNETT:

(INAUDIBLE)

ANGIE BELL MP:

…Yeah, the Coalition’s policy, of course, is that we would look at banning gambling ads before and after live broadcasts of sporting events. That’s reasonable. We moved a Private Member’s Motion in the House a month after that, and of course, the Labor Party teamed up with the Greens in the Senate to vote that down. Now, I guess, it looks like they’re doing roughly the same thing, but it’s taken them a year to do anything when it comes to that report that Peta Murphy tabled, and it’s taken them a long time. We’ve got a very slow government and a very weak Prime Minister.

GREG JENNETT:

I’ll put the same question to Kristy, but landing at that model, what considerations had you brought to bear on, say, the health of regional broadcasters or free to air television sports rights holders and the like? Did that guide that model?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Well, the Leader of the Opposition outlined our position in his Budget in Reply speech last year, some time ago, and the relevant stakeholders were spoken to at that time, and we came to that conclusion.

GREG JENNETT:

Alright, what about these regional broadcasters being the Territories Minister and Regional Development,  Kristy, the health of local media in rural and regional Australia, would be front of mind for you, is that an overriding consideration in perhaps not going towards a full, outright ban?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

Well, as I said, I think you’ve got to take into account a whole range of stakeholders in this space. We’ve seen people move away from free TV. A lot of people are moving onto streaming platforms, and advertising revenue has slumped, but it is incredibly important that we don’t leave sectors of our community out of receiving local news updates or having access to free TV. So you know that’s part of the consultation process, as I said, that you would do with a range of stakeholders when you’re making any decisions.

GREG JENNETT:

You could also underpin the health of those regional news organisations by other means, couldn’t you, outside of a gambling advertising regime?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

That’s what the Minister for Communications is doing. She’s been consulting widely right across the sectors that may be impacted by any decision, and that includes with peak advocacy groups who are dealing with harm reduction as well. So there is a big sector here that we need to work with, and that’s exactly what the minister’s doing. As I said, the committee’s report was very thorough, with 31 recommendations, and you’d expect a thorough response from a good government, and that’s exactly what will happen.

GREG JENNETT:

All right, Angie, why don’t we change tack and go towards something Bill Shorten outlined at the Press Club today. He’s moving towards a, what’s planned to be a very broad based digital identification system called TEx, apparently, would get many businesses involved, and we would be able to control what fields of our data would transfer to businesses. Do you either understand it or support it?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Well, look Bill outlined at the Press Club earlier today, that it’s in the proof of concept stage, which is at the very, very beginning. We haven’t seen a Bill, and so when the legislation comes to the House, obviously the Opposition will look at that.

But we’ve heard the Minister before make promises about putting New South Wales drivers licenses, for example, into the myGov wallet that hasn’t happened yet. So I don’t have a lot of confidence as to where this is going when it’s in its infancy and there’s been some kind of policy announcement. So we’ll look at that when it comes to the House, and take that through our party room processes, as we always do.

GREG JENNETT:

Alright, what do you understand of the way this will work. I mean, lots of questions spring to mind when you hear this outlined by the Minister and you’re going to get all the assurances about security and privacy. How can we be so sure?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

I think it’s really important that we start investing money in technology that will keep people’s identities secure and safe. We’ve seen cyber attacks on Medibank, on Optus, on banking institutions where people’s identity documents were leaked or their medical documents were leaked. This is basically a way that you can verify who you are, and then tap a screen which gives basically a government thumbs up, that person is who they say they are.

GREG JENNETT:

Now are we asked to believe, at the same time that governments are better, innately better at protecting this information than a private sector organisation, the likes of which you just mentioned?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

With private sector organisations, we haven’t been asked to do that. We’ve been asked to physically provide our passport details, our driver’s license details, our banking details, that’s what’s been leaked onto the internet. This is basically a digital chip that says you are who you say you are. It’s not keeping all your information on that chip. It’s just we’ve verified you once, and that’s how you use it, no different to our credit cards on our phones, or our debit cards on our phones where we tap on a machine and money comes out of our bank account. That’s how it would work in that exchange of information, and people can sign up to it, or they might not, as Angie has rightly said, the legislation is not there yet, but this is an idea that actually will move us forward in this digital age, and hopefully people will take it up if they want to, if they don’t want to, they don’t need to.

GREG JENNETT:

Yeah, apparently it would be world leading in some senses. I think Estonia might be slightly ahead of us, but not too many others have tried this on this scale. Religious discrimination. Kristy, I’ll go to you first of all, the Prime Minister appeared to haul up the white flag on this late last week, and the realisation of that seemed to take a few days to filter through. But is that the end of this agenda in the current Parliament that the government will not be pursuing any legislation for religious discrimination?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

I think our party and I think the Coalition are keen to get up some religious discrimination laws. We don’t want anyone to be vilified for their religion, and we don’t want anyone to be targeted because of, you know, the places in which they work, because they don’t ascribe to the same religion, either. At a time where we are seeing social cohesion break down and there are conflicts happening across the world, and that social cohesion is breaking down with those conflicts being imported here. It’s really important that on an issue like this, that there is bipartisan support. So four months ago, that legislation was handed over to the Coalition. We haven’t heard anything from them, not amendments to the proposed legislation, not willing to work with us on what that might look like. Nothing. I think at this time in our country’s timeline, it is important that any work is done together in this space, so it’s open for the Coalition to work with us on it.

GREG JENNETT:

Pick that up Angie.

ANGIE BELL MP:

Thanks Greg, well, I think this is Albo’s secret Bill. Have you seen it Kristy? Has the caucus seen it? What’s in it? What the Prime Minister is proposing to do? Obviously, he’s engaged with the stakeholders, as you outlined, and so he should move forward with his Bill and stop blaming the Coalition for something that he has promised to deliver and simply can’t.

GREG JENNETT:

There’s clearly a failure for both sides to lock on to this. What about the argument of timing? Which Kristy brings up here, that it is not the appropriate time, given all the tensions emanating from the Middle East and elsewhere, to be trying to tackle a Bill like this?

ANGIE BELL MP:

The timing is up to the government of the day. They make decisions around when legislation comes to the House, when Bills are passed, and they are responsible for that, not the Opposition. And so whenever it suits the Prime Minister, he seems to revert back to the position that he took when he was in Opposition, and that is to blame us in the Liberal National Party. He is blaming the Coalition for his own failures when it comes to the religious discrimination Bill.

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

The hand of bipartisan is there. This is a matter that we both agree on that has to be addressed. And you know, politics… interrupted.

ANGIE BELL MP:

It’s the Government of the day. Have you seen the Bill?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

…But politicking for the sake of it is ridiculous. And you know, we’ve got we’ve handed over and said, work with us on it. What do you think of this draft?

ANGIE BELL MP:

I think Greg’s right, Albo’s put up his white flag because he simply can’t deliver this promise.

GREG JENNETT:

And if it has to be addressed, Kristy, should it be put up as a pledge for a second term?

KRISTY MCBAIN MP:

Again, I think it’s incredibly important. The Morrison Government tried to achieve something in the dying days of their government, and couldn’t get anything through. We’ve said it’s incredibly important that we do something on this, but it’s also important that we work together on it. And as I said, there’s been no input at all from the Coalition on it.

GREG JENNETT:

Alright, looking something of a relief for us. Angie, Kristy, we actually managed to get through our full list of topics with both of you today. Regular viewers would know, of course, that we’ve been brutally interrupted by bells in the House of Representatives on many occasions. Alas, not today, so we’ll breathe a sigh of relief there. Kristy McBain, thanks so much. Angie Bell, same to you, always good to have you back with us in full.

[ENDS]