Rebekha Sharkie
Mayo · Centre Alliance · Australia
“People often say to me, 'What's the greatest thing that you love about your job?' I would say—what I love the most is actually never in the media—that what I love the most is when my team and I can help somebody with their aged care issue or their NDIS package or a Centrelink problem.”
“For all of us, and certainly for me, that is my team members, and some of them have been with me for many, many, many years. Whether they've been with me for a short time or a long time, I've got to say that every single member of my team has been fantastic. They really have. I love the team of people I work with.”
“These have all been incredibly worthwhile and important projects that our whole community has backed in together. One that we've all really loved and enjoyed being on is the Amy Gillett Bikeway. That's now been extended from Mount Torrens to Birdwood.”
“Ten years ago today, the community of Mayo put their trust in me to represent them. I'd particularly like to acknowledge former senator Nick Xenophon. Nick Xenophon put his trust in me to represent his party.”
“I mustn't forget Kangaroo Island and upgrades to Hog Bay Road which have improved safety. We've had such enormous population growth, but there is so much more to do. There's always so much to do. When I look at health, we have emergency departments that have been upgraded at Victor Harbor and a new emergency department in Mount Barker.”
“He is constantly asked by children and teachers if his skin hurts, if the eczema is getting worse and, by some children, 'What's wrong with you?' There are thousands of children just like Angus in Australia whose severe eczema will cause some long-term physical and emotional harm if they cannot access new treatments.”
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“Kangaroo Island in my electorate is a hidden gem. I think it's one of Australia's best kept secrets. It has a population of around 5,000 people and is quite a large island, around 4½ thousand square kilometres. To put that into context, it is around 150 kilometres by about 50 kilometres in depth. It is a remote place to live. When Mayor Michael Pengilly let me know last week that Centrelink services would be stopping on the island because the current agent Mobo notified Services Australia that they would be ceasing the Kangaroo Island contract this coming Friday, I really sprang into action.”
“I would urge the government, if you genuinely believe that the capital gains tax and the changes to negative gearing—which you're applying to shares but you're somehow saying that it relates to housing affordability—then take it to an election. Just take it to an election. Do the honourable thing. Do what John Howard did. He had the courage of his conviction and he did it. I can't tell you how many emails I've received but I think that the government needs to do better on this. For the first time in a decade, I just cannot support this budget bill.”
“We say you need to be an Australian citizen to access HECS—or a refugee. You can't be a permanent migrant to do that. So now the Australian taxpayer is actually on the hook for people who are not Australian citizens to get into the housing market with just a five per cent deposit. If they default, Australian taxpayers are landed with the mess; it's just insane. And by the way, 50,000 people who are not Australian citizens have entered that scheme. If we genuinely want to make sure that our next generation is able to own a home, we need to be looking after ourselves first and we're not doing that. This budget doesn't do that. In fact, this budget punishes Australians for the benefit of everyone else.”
“If we go back to 2004, before Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister, when we saw the mass increase in house prices along with a mass increase in population, we had under 100,000 people coming to Australia. I understand the Canadian government has reduced the capacity for people who are either temporary migrants or are overseas investors to purchase established dwellings—we have a temporary ban on that—but they can still purchase vacant land or new dwellings. If we want to reduce demand, why don't we do that? Why don't we say: in order to buy land or a new home or indeed an established home in Australia, you need to be a permanent resident or an Australian citizen. Why is it that, when the government introduced their five per cent deposit scheme, they didn't cap that just to Australian citizens? That's madness. We do that with HECS.”
“I mean, he was a left-wing Prime Minister who said, 'We didn't get the balance quite right,' and that's why they pivoted towards reducing migration. Why are we not doing this here? We're a population of 28 million. We had a net permanent migration in 2024-25 of over 300,000 people. Canada has 1.5 million temporary migrants. We have three million temporary migrants on our soil in Australia. Student visa holders make up around two 720,000 of those. Each of those need to live in a home. Now, if we go back to our student visa numbers, in 2016-17, the year I started, we had 343,000 temporary student visa holders. We now offer 720,000 and we wonder why we have a housing crisis. When we look at permanent migration, if we go back to the numbers again—let's look at the year 2016—we had 206,000 people who came here as permanent migrants in 2016.”
“They've paused short-term population growth, and they have alleviated pressure on housing and their public services. Their federal government has significantly slashed both permanent and temporary resident targets. Canada is a nation of 41 million people. They slashed their permanent resident targets by 20 per cent. It's capped non-permanent residents to five per cent of their total population—1.5 million. They've targeted in that international students, with strict caps on international student enrolments, and they've tightened the eligibility rules for foreign workers. This has seen a significant decline in their house prices. That's why they did the shift. They did that because they wanted to put their people first. And Justin Trudeau, he's hardly a right winger, is he?”
“This is no longer the case with this CGT increase which now sets back the time for a deposit by at least another two years. Honestly, they're maybe just two per cent of the emails I've received on this. This is the first time as a member of parliament I just cannot support a budget that's been handed down by the government, and that's because it's not built on promises and trust. It's the complete opposite. Let's look at housing. I have three adult children. I want to see them get a house, just like I was able to get a house in my 20s. If we genuinely want to reduce the demand on housing, here are some policies that the government may decide to consider that would reduce demand without taxing Australians. Canada has actively reduced their immigration.”
“On the actual mechanics, it does close to the opposite—it tightens tax treatment for productive equity investment, while preserving, and in places concentrating, the structural advantages of leveraged residential property. Paul said: I'm saving for a house. Your budget just added years to my timeline. Ari said: I'm a 24-year-old middle-income earner and I don't own a home. I'm exactly the kind of person this policy is supposedly designed to help. I'm trying to build wealth through shares and Exchange Traded Funds because I can't access the housing ladder. The CGT reform hits people like me hardest. It raises the cost of the one wealth building option still available to me. Hans said: My son has been saving diligently with bitcoin for five years and has just recently accumulated enough for a deposit to buy a house.”
“These promises have been completely flipped and so has my family's ability to succeed. To make matters worse I have always hoped to be able to leave my kids with some kind of wealth once my wife and I pass. Now the Labor Government wants to get their hands on that as well. Sally wrote: I never write emails to politicians, but I'm scared. I'm trying so hard to save enough for retirement and pay off my mortgage, and it all seems impossible now. I'm a 57-year-old woman living in a single income household, doing my best to accumulate enough money to self-fund my retirement by the age of 65. The proposed CGT changes mean I won't be able to gradually sell down shares to fund my own retirement and will likely end up on the pension. Scott said: The package is presented as addressing the housing-investor tax bias and intergenerational unfairness.”
“The primary purpose of a testamentary discretionary trust is to protect an inheritance for children, widows, widowers, disabled beneficiaries and vulnerable adults after a person's death. Jacqui said: 'It seems obvious to me that the government is making tax changes that favour younger voters at the expense of older voters. It's a blatant attempt to garner stronger support from a younger voter base.' Let's go to capital gains tax, which we remember that the Prime Minister said he had no plans and he wasn't going to do it 'for the 50th time'. Andrew wrote to me and said: I've never written to my local MP before— I've got to say I've received so many emails starting with that— I feel like this budget is a direct attack on me and my family. We made decisions and voted based on the promises made by Labor at the last election.”
“Full health insurance. Now I'm the target to fund Labor's massive debt. Please voice our concern as to the mess this … Treasurer and Prime Minister are leaving us in. Andrew said: I am a 28-year-old. Rather than encouraging aspiration economic opportunity and personal freedom, I believe this budget further entrenches Government control while weakening intergenerational equity and the ability of younger Australians to build prosperous futures for themselves. Ben, an estate lawyer, wrote to me and said: My concern is that testamentary trusts are being caught up in a broader policy conversation about discretionary trusts, without sufficient recognition of their unique role in estate planning.”
“What I think really went to the nub of Macclesfield RSL's communication with me is this: If the same impediments were placed before other demographics of our community, there would be an uprising, but for those who wrote a blank cheque for their country for and up to the sacrificing of their life, we look away. With respect to trust in the budget, I've received a huge amount of correspondence. Ryan said to me: With respect to the proposed changes on trusts, I see this as an attempt to further tax a sector of people who are productive, hardworking and financially responsible. This Government appears to want to punish those who work hard, are economically productive and plan for their future under the guise of some kind of "Robin Hood" ethics. Alan said: I left school at 16. I am now 77 and a fully self-funded retiree. No handouts.”
“With respect to veterans health, my inbox is overflowing with correspondence from veterans, veterans' family members and, indeed, some of our RSLs about the changes. Macclesfield RSL wrote to me and said: Immediate concern for many veterans in your electorate is the capping of Allied Health Care. This will result in many veterans' foregoing treatment with regards to Physio, Psychology, Occupational Therapy, and Exercise Physiology as examples. The new $5000 cap will mean that some veterans will have to decide between mental health and physical health, unless they go through another administration process to seek approval to get the treatment they need and deserve. As the Government spin doctors are hard at work trying to dress up the budget as a win for veterans.”
“With respect to private health insurance changes, Geoff from Strathalbyn said: I am disgusted with Labor's treatment of aged pensioners who have sacrificed much to pay private health insurance. At the age of 80, when health insurance is critical, I'm having to think about scrapping it to be able to afford power, water and food. Andy from Craigburn Farm said: This harsh and unfair policy will probably result in more senior Australians dropping their private health cover. Australians at the most vulnerable period of their lives, don't deserve this. Jonathon said: As someone who has had private health cover since my mid 20s, I now need to decide what else I can cut back should I wish to keep it. I urge you to press the Government on the unfairness of this cruel and short-sighted decision.”
“My community overwhelmingly feels that, if the government are confident in their decision-making, they should take those proposals to an election, just as John Howard did when he was Prime Minister, with respect to the GST. He had the courage of his convictions to do that. We've seen the Prime Minister himself saying that he had said over 50 times he wasn't going to make the changes. A year in, the changes are made. Having been a member for 10 years now, I know that the wheels of government move very slowly. I wonder when the government actually went to the Treasury and asked for modelling with respect to capital gains tax and negative gearing, because I can't believe that it was just a recent aberration that happened in the last couple of months. I'd like to read comments from my community to you on these issues.”
“At no time in the last 10 years have I received so many emails and handwritten mail about a budget. And I have to tell you, very little of that was positive—very, very little. Whether it be private health insurance changes for older Australians, around limiting veterans' access to support, changes to trusts or capital gains tax or, indeed, negative gearing, overwhelmingly, people in my community have said to me that they feel betrayed by the government. In fact, the government went to the election just a year ago promising that they weren't going to change negative gearing and capital gains tax in particular. They didn't even mention trusts, discretionary trusts and testamentary discretionary trusts. A year in, they have completely changed their position.”
“I'm continuing to review this legislation. I'm continuing to hear from my community. My hope is that that will be the focus of the government in amendments to the Senate.”
“I was listening to the previous speaker, and she was saying how the Labor government is the first to try and curtail this scheme. That is not true. I was here when the previous government was attempting to legislate for independent assessments, and, I've got to say, the then Labor opposition fought so hard against that. We actually wouldn't be in the mess that we're in now if we'd had more bipartisanship in trying to address this behemoth of a scheme for the last decade. I have much more to say about this, but I will say this: the government needs to focus on ensuring that we address the fraud, the rorting and the organised crime that is costing this nation billions of dollars and on providing and ensuring that there are the best quality supports for people who are living with disability. That is where the focus needs to be.”
“The government advises that providers of the high-risk services will be the first required to be registered. How they were not already registered just beggars belief. I would prefer to see all providers not just registered; they must be qualified and appropriate service delivery organisations and they must be accredited, because people who are living with disability, I believe, deserve the very best of supports. This should be our focus. The legislation sets out a new definition for 'functional capacity' as a threshold to access the scheme. That is going to render many applicants and participants ineligible for the NDIS. I understand why the government's doing this, but there is a real fear in the community that there aren't alternative foundational supports.”
“It seems insane; you're never going to get to the bottom of the problem of fraud when you have over 300,000 providers. When we're looking at the challenges around the NDIS, what does this bill do? There are some parts of it that I do support in relation to integrity and responding to fraud, but there is much more that the government can do. This bill takes some positive steps towards better managing fraud, with plan managers to be the gatekeepers for other providers by setting up a provisioning model for the plan manager cohort. I do wonder, though, whether we are putting all of the burden on plan managers and not enough of the burden on the government department to actually curtail the number of providers that we have in Australia.”
“Investigative reporters have found that many padlocked shops are empty, yet the invoices to the NDIS continue. I've even heard from reputable sources of overseas-based support coordinators submitting invoices. This system is an unmitigated disaster, and that is what the government should be focusing on, not putting more fear into people who are trying to get by, supporting, in many cases, their children on a plan. The optimist in me says that it's not too late and that we can address this. If I was the government, instead of looking to cut those 160,000 people, I would formally be putting to tender, region by region, services to deliver so that you had a group of services—organisations that were reputable and had qualified staff in them—and you still had choice for participants within that region.”
“It's no wonder they all have stickers saying 'I love the NDIS'. For context, Support at Home, the government's new national aged-care program that assists over 300,000 older Australians, has around 900 providers. Workforce Australia, the national program that assists over 600,000 Australians into employment, has around 1½ thousand providers. Each one of those, with respect to employment providers, had to apply through competitive tender, and they needed to demonstrate governance and expertise, and each one's audited annually. But with NDIS, we don't have that at all. Basically, put up a sign saying you deliver NDIS services and away you go. And we are dealing with people. This is supposed to be providing services to our most vulnerable Australians.”
“That's approximately two participants per provider across Australia, and 96 per cent of them are not registered. In the Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island parts of my electorate, 94 per cent are unregistered and only six per cent of providers are registered. In my electorate, we actually have more providers than we have participants, and of those who are registered, a minuscule number are actually certified as being accredited. It's just unbelievable that we would allow a system that is full of unregistered, unaccredited providers delivering services to our most vulnerable people. We don't know what qualifications they have. It's no wonder there is fraud rampant and it's no wonder we have organised crime and every man and his dog—320,000 of them—becoming NDIS providers.”
“The recent declaration by Minister Butler that NDIS spending needed curtailment was expected, and it is indeed necessary. However, the message largely dominated by the announcement was that 160,000 people would be removed from the scheme. That not only leaves many people fearful; I believe it completely misses the mark on how to properly deliver a sustainable national disability program. The minister said that the goal is for most providers to be registered in the future. However, it is impossible for any government to have proper oversight when there are 320,000 providers, and that's from the December 2025 NDIS Explore data report, which said 320,778 providers existed. Now, the NDIA report to ministers says it's 276,000, and the library tells us it's somewhere in between. That is an extraordinary number of providers in the system.”
“Reports of organised crime and inappropriate, mischievous or fraudulent claims are estimated to cost up to a tenth of its budget, or around $5 billion annually—and I believe that that's quite conservative. Realistically, that figure is likely underreported, given Minister Butler states the NDIA has no visibility of 90 per cent of invoices. In the February 2026 Senate estimates, John Dardo, the head of the NDIS Fraud Fusion Taskforce, reported that just 53 individuals were referred for prosecution and that there were just 16 matters before the court. Troublingly, Mr Dardo stated that in 2024 there was not 'sufficient judiciary to process the cases we have in the pipeline in the country'. Imagine that—not enough lawyers! Whoever would say that!”
“But what has eventuated has been a policy disaster of epic proportions, overwhelmed by fraud and inequity. The Productivity Commission's estimate has quadrupled, and when talking to people in my community many say the scheme has not materially improved their lives. Big differences can be seen in the level of supports provided, often due to the quality of supports participants can afford, and many people with disabilities—and their loved ones and carers—are fatigued, gripped with fear that their plan will be cut or cease with the changes that are before us. This fear is compounded by the knowledge that outside of the NDIS there are very few supports. This scheme is absolutely plagued by fraud. In the 2025 September quarter, more than 7½ thousand fraud tip-offs were reported to the National Disability Insurance Agency.”
“The National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the most important social policies in this nation. Equally, I think it's fair to say, it's also been the public policy problem child for successive governments since its introduction by the Gillard government. The NDIS was created with the best of intentions. Prior to the scheme, support for people living with disability was managed by individual states. Services were largely block-funded and subject to the vagaries of state budget cycles, and access to service depended largely upon your postcode. In 2011, the Productivity Commission estimated that a national scheme would cost $13.5 billion per annum. A national system providing tailored support for people living with disability was certainly visionary.”
“The person who is responsible for pulling this all together is Cathy Megson-McAllister, and she has a remarkable story. She survived an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2005. She lost both of her parents in 2006, and she lost her husband, Barry, in 2016 to leukaemia. But she has kept going. She is the driving force behind this extraordinary event. Congratulations, Cathy and all from Macclesfield Young at Heart.”
“It was incredibly moving to not just attend but to open one of South Australia's most successful Australia's Biggest Morning Tea fundraisers. And that was at Macclesfield in my community of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills. More than 200 people came together for the Macclesfield Young at Heart event. In fact, the population of Macclesfield is not much bigger than 200 people. So this was the whole town turning out. This was so much more than a morning tea. It was a gathering filled with generosity, resilience and love. We heard from Will McDonald, a South Australian newsreader who's had his own battle with cancer, and beautiful young Liana, who was diagnosed with stage IV. She is now three years clear in remission. The club has hosted 19 of these events. It has raised more than $343,000 since its first event in 2008.”
“A survey that I ran found that 94 per cent of residents did not support housing on the site, so I'm very pleased that we've had assurances from the state housing and planning minister, Nick Champion, that there are no plans for residential and employment lands on that site. What do we want to see as a community? Now, we're going to create a working group and really articulate and form together what that vision looks like, whether that be recreation users, environment, wildlife value. We need to come together, because we want to ensure that our children's grandchildren are proud of what becomes of the Woodside Barracks a century from now. I thank the state minister, the Hon. Nick Champion, and I thank the departments, both Finance and Defence, for coming to our community.”
“More than 200 people attended a Defence community information session about the Woodside Barracks, and I'm very pleased to see the assistant minister is here in the chamber. That's how important this site is to us as a community. The message from my community was very, very clear: we want to know what is happening and be involved in the future of the site. Many people, including me, are disappointed in the sale, particularly as the barracks are approaching their 100th anniversary next year, but now it's about what we do with this important piece of land into the future. There's been strong community feedback.”
“I think one of the most innovative ideas in this bill is the requirement for low-level satellite telephone calls and connectivity in our community centres. The member for Mayo is completely correct—sorry, the member for Indi is completely correct. The member for Mayo might be too! But certainly the member for Indi is.”
“So it is an excellent requirement to have 24-hour battery backup, which will, in many cases, allow the immediate danger to pass, and then we can get those mobile telephone tower batteries swapped over and hopefully continue without losing telecommunications, so it's incredibly important. The temporary disaster roaming period, in which a person in a disaster affected area can temporarily connect to another network, will be a game changer in regional Australia. Many people in my electorate, ridiculously, need to carry both Optus and Telstra—two separate phones—because in some parts of the electorate Optus works best, but in other parts it's Telstra, so being able to swap across carriers will be incredibly important. And this bill will enable the minister to make rules requiring temporary disaster roaming in declared emergency situations.”
“We've had, during my time as a member, devastating fires on Kangaroo Island, in the Adelaide Hills and at Cherry Gardens, and, just before I was the member, there was one at Sampson Flat. But the disaster lives on for a long time. I think one thing that common to all of those is that our telecommunications failed us when we needed them the most, and that's why this bill is so important. It will respond to address failures of mobile networks. It will require ACMA to set minimum-power and backup-power requirements, because that's so critical. The electricity gets cut to save us during bushfires, from a danger point of view, but then, with so many people on the network, the towers go down very, very quickly.”
“I second the motion. I very much support the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Communications in Natural Disasters) Bill 2026 and this motion, and I thank the member for Indi for championing regional telecommunications. My community understands the very real threat of bushfires. We've lived through the fear, uncertainty and heartbreak that come with fires—not just our homes but our entire townships. Telecommunications outages, due to the loss of power or destruction of infrastructure during such natural disasters, ultimately cost lives. Earlier this year, the fire at Deep Creek reminded us how quickly conditions can change. That one actually threatened the township of Cape Jervis and vital ferry infrastructure.”
“We in regional Australia feed you three times a day. They say that you should thank a farmer three times a day. But we in this place do not do enough to support regional Australians, whether they be farmers or whether they be workers out there in the regions. I would urge this government, when you are next putting together a budget, to sit down with some farmers, sit down with some people from regional Australia and make a budget that is far more equitable for all of Australia, not just the metro people of Australia.”
“But, if you're on 50 acres or 50 hectares, you will. That is the kind of inequity that exists whether you live in the regions or whether you live in metropolitan Australia. That is just plainly unfair. That also impacts you if you're an older person and you are seeking to go on the pension. The pension assets test looks at the two hectares around your home, and then outside of that is on the asset side. You could be on a 10-acre block, and the balance outside of that two hectares goes on the asset side. We find so many older Australians that are living in poverty on a 10-acre block because they only maybe get a part pension simply because of the fact that they're on that 10-acre block. Again, if they are in that $15 million harbourside mansion and that was their only asset, no problem. Here's the full pension for you.”
“The capital gains tax rules on rural residential properties in this budget is going to make it even more expensive for people who live as their primary place of residence on anything over two hectares, because, under the rules, if you live on more than two hectares and you sell your property—perhaps you're living on 50 hectares and you run some cattle or run some sheep, but you never actually made any real income on your property—you will pay capital gains tax on anything outside of those two hectares. With the current changes that the government's proposing in the budget, that tax is going to be even more expensive if you sell after next June. Of course, you could have a Sydney harbourside mansion worth $20 million, and if that's your principal place of residence you don't pay any capital gains tax.”
“For young people on Kangaroo Island in my electorate, unless they are incredibly wealthy, it is near impossible to fund a life and go to university after high school. They just don't do it. They get through high school and they stay on the property. They stay on Kangaroo Island. We have some incredibly bright young people. We need the doctors and lawyers, and we need them in regional communities as well. That means we need to ensure that those young people get supported to go to university. This is one that hasn't been picked up by any journalists.”
“For the 2023-24 year, that blew out to over $1,000 per person. What that means is that we die younger. We feed you all, but we die younger. We get less spend when it comes to health. It's a postcode lottery. Despite serious criticism, the distribution priority area changes that were made by the government still stand. The government has taken away doctors from the regions and put them in areas like Elizabeth in South Australia or leafy Mitcham and taken them away from where they're desperately needed, where that person was perhaps the only doctor. When we look at education, a regional student is more likely to work in a regional community, but regional students need support, and there are so many barriers that it's insurmountable.”
“When this temporary relief ends, it is the people of my electorate, it is the people of regional Australia, who have no choice but to rely on cars, who will suffer the most. We just don't have public transport in the regions. That's something that's only ever funded for metropolitan areas. When we look at the health gap, regional Australians experience higher costs of health care and worse health outcomes than our metro counterparts. Twice I've asked in question time about what the government's doing to address that expenditure gap, and the answer really is nothing. This budget does very little to correct it. In fact, the National Rural Health Alliance in 2021 saw that there was an $848 spend gap between a person who lives in regional Australia and a person who lives in metro Australia.”
“We're hearing a lot in this budget about intergenerational inequity, but we never hear about regional inequity from the government. Australians who live in the regions are worse off under virtually every metric, whether that be health, housing, education, pension assets tests, capital gains tax or even road trauma. Regional Australians represent around 30 per cent of the nation's population and make an even greater contribution, but, whether it is health or whether it's road spending, we are short-changed, and it affects our lives. The question is: has the budget let down regional Australia? Well, I would say yes. The government will be ending the halving of the fuel tax excise in June—because there's no indication the government is going to continue it after June even if we still have conflict in Iran.”
“My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Three million older Australians with private health insurance, including over 400,000 age pensioners, feel betrayed by the government for ending the rebate that will see premiums soar by up to $1,600 for a couple. Many older Mayo residents have emailed me and said that they can't cut anything else from their budget—they're left with the choice of cutting food or health insurance. Why is the government treating older Australians so badly? What happened to leaving no-one left behind?”
“The government needs to show courage and stop predatory gambling companies from causing Australian gambling harm, and pay the price to try and prevent, manage and cure those harms. I support this bill and my amendment.”
“There was a ban on credit cards for online gambling, which was a recommendation of a separate 2021 inquiry, but they have not acted on this Murphy report. My second reading amendment actually looks to do some good. It looks to stem some of the taxpayer funding—because it's us as taxpayers that would be funding the tax breaks for the gambling industries. It's money that doesn't come into the general pool, because it's going back into the pockets of the gambling industry. So I have moved my second reading amendment, and I commend my amendment to the House. It is my great hope that in the other place the government seeks to amend this bill to make what is a good bill an even better bill.”
“It's been more than a thousand days since the Murphy report on the inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm, You win some, you lose more , was handed down. The report's unanimous bipartisan recommendations to reduce harm caused by gambling online include a gambling ad ban; a minister for reducing gambling harm, not a minister that's juggling the current conflicts of communications and sport; and a national regulator with a mission to reduce gambling. For a thousand days this government has really done very little to address the impacts of gambling—poor mental health; financial hardship; crimes such as domestic violence, elder abuse and stealing; homelessness; and even suicide. The government has not responded.”
“Further, the university states that the centre's creation was 'made possible through $600,000 funding from the International Centre for Responsible Gambling', whose own website states that its research program is funded primarily by companies involved in the gambling industry. I and many others would be gravely concerned to see any tax breaks extended to any entities funded by the gambling interests. I and many others will be watching the May federal budget carefully for this budget bid. I plead with the Treasurer: do not provide this $20 million. The gall to even seek that funding is just extraordinary. Now is a timely opportunity to talk about the Murphy report delays.”
“The OurFutures institute budget submission states that it's gambling education program would be led by experienced leaders, including University of Sydney Centre of Excellence in Gambling Research leader Professor Sally Gainsbury. It must be noted that Professor Sally Gainsbury receives direct and indirect funding from the gambling industry, and on the university's website she refers to the Centre of Excellence in Gambling Research as an 'unprecedented collaboration with gambling operators'. Honestly, I don't understand how ethically this university could get into bed with the gambling industry. I seriously don't get it.”
“I also call on the government to exclude from eligibility entities such as research organisations which obtain part or all of their funding from tobacco and gambling companies. Researchers in gambling harm research should not accept money from the gambling industry so that no actual bias influences their research and no perceived bias lessens the value of their research. I've been made aware, by gambling harm lived experience experts known as GHLEE, of a $20 million budget submission from OurFutures institute seeking funding to deliver a gambling prevention education program aimed at 15- to-20-year-olds. GHLEE have expressed concerns regarding the proposed program, and it's also been covered in some detail by the Guardian Australia.”
“Rather, such research findings may help companies or sectors avoid detriment to their business models through how they choose to implement any purported harm minimisation research outcomes. You really couldn't make this stuff up. My second reading amendment, therefore, calls on the government to exclude all research and development activities conducted by gambling and tax companies from eligibility for the research and development tax incentive. It's very, very simple; it's a carve-out. It recognises that gambling harm and harm from tobacco are effectively the same harm to Australian people. The profits made by these companies result from harm caused to our community, and their research and development activities should be entirely self-funded.”