Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Gambling harm

Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (12:53): Today I rise to talk about the necessity of gambling harm reform, which is desperately required to stop the disruption that is destroying many individuals, families and communities. Financial ruin, relationship breakdowns, isolation, lies, deceit, criminal behaviour and suicide are far too common when poor mental health and depression entwine with gambling afflictions and where many good people from good families are impacted. The system is broken to a point where people are dying, and this needs to change. Statistics in this case do not lie, with the coroner stating that approximately 20 persons per year in Victoria are dying unnecessarily and directly from gambling harm. But we all know this figure is extraordinarily conservative, and the reality is that the real figure is far, far beyond the 20 that the coroner can account for.

Billions and billions of dollars are being lost each and every year by Victorians, but little is being done to reduce gambling harm by governments, other than tokenistic or ineffective programs and gimmicks. Whether I am an MP or not I will not stop this fight until effective and impactful legislation, regulations and oversight are put in place. I am not calling for gambling to be banned. But I am calling for the harm and deaths to stop, and this can be done by simple and effective reforms. It is a national shame and disgrace that people are dying because of gambling, but they are. We can do more and we can do better. In one of my last sentences in this Parliament I will say this: the only sure bet is that if we do nothing then nothing will change—people will continue to die, and that tragic outcome is on all of us.