18 June 2025
Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. C. Bonaros:
That this council—
1. Notes the Malinauskas government has returned train services to public ownership;
2. Recognises that public trains, buses, and trams are key spaces where children, young people, and other vulnerable individuals are regularly exposed to advertising;
3 Recognises that the availability, exposure and accessibility of gambling products can either exacerbate or mitigate gambling harm, and that restricting advertising can help minimise this risk;
4. Notes the recent commitment of the New South Wales government to ban gambling advertising on state-owned and controlled assets, including internal and external advertising on trains, buses, trams and associated infrastructure, following a broader ban introduced by the Victorian government in 2017;
5. Acknowledges that reducing gambling advertising would have positive social and economic benefits for the South Australian community; and
6. Calls on the Malinauskas government to take decisive action to reduce gambling harm by banning gambling advertising on public transport spaces across South Australia.
(Continued from 5 February 2025.)
The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (21:30): I would like to thank the Hon. Connie Bonaros for her advocacy on this. The government supports the intent of the honourable member's motion, and I understand that the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and his department would also like to say thank you—thank you—and are currently investigating options relating to the intent of the member's motion.
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (21:31): I rise to indicate my support for this motion from the Hon. Connie Bonaros. I want to recognise her work on this issue of phasing out pokies over many years. We did have a discussion about this on the radio recently where—
The Hon. C. Bonaros: We seem to have been doing a lot of that lately.
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: We do—where I indicated my intention on behalf of the Greens to campaign heading into the next election to phase out pokies by 2030.
The Hon. C. Bonaros: Pokie machines.
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Pokie machines—thank you—poker machines, and I am disappointed that the Labor government have delivered yet another budget that is predicated on pokies revenue. One of the areas that we need to address is the advertising of gambling, which is what the motion from the Hon. Connie Bonaros is seeking to address.
This motion builds on the approach that the Malinauskas government has taken recently with respect to banning junk food advertising on public transport. Indeed, members may recall that I had a bill before parliament to ban junk food advertising on public transport and other public infrastructure. The bill was not supported by the government, but they did indicate that they would look into the issue, and I welcomed the fact that they took action.
Back in January, the Minister for Health, the Hon. Chris Picton, announced that the Malinauskas government would be banning junk food advertising on all public transport. I think that is a really good outcome. In particular, one of my concerns was around the exposure of children to junk food advertising, and this is a really good way of limiting that exposure.
I do agree with the Hon. Connie Bonaros that the missing piece of the puzzle is, of course, gambling advertising. It is appalling that we could see gambling being promoted on public transport and indeed I think on other forms of public infrastructure as well, so I am certainly supportive of this motion. I see this as being an important step in reducing some of the harm associated with gambling.
But, of course, we will continue to campaign to go further—to end pokie machines here in our state. I think this will be a key issue heading into the next state election.