In June 2023, a parliamentary committee chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy delivered a unanimous, cross-party report into online gambling. It contained 31 recommendations, headlined by a phased complete ban on gambling advertising across all media within three years.
On 12 May 2026 — federal budget day — the Albanese government tabled its formal response and accompanying legislation. The package falls materially short of the Murphy recommendations, and the timing has been widely criticised as designed to bury the announcement under budget coverage.
The report, formally titled You win some, you lose more, was the final product of an inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. The committee was chaired by Peta Murphy MP, the federal member for Dunkley, who died from breast cancer in December 2023. The inquiry had cross-party support: the report's recommendations were unanimous.
The report ran to over 300 pages and made 31 recommendations covering the regulation, advertising, and harm-reduction measures around online wagering. The most prominent of these was a phased, complete ban on advertising of online gambling across all media — broadcast, online, in stadiums, on jerseys — over a three-year transition.
Selected from the 31 recommendations. The full list is available from the Parliament of Australia website.
On Tuesday 12 May 2026, almost three years after the Murphy Report was delivered, the Albanese government tabled its formal response and legislation in parliament. The tabling fell on federal budget day, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivering the 2026–27 budget that same evening — a timing decision that has drawn sharp criticism from advocacy and public-health bodies, who argue the response has been deliberately scheduled to be obscured by budget coverage.
The independent news outlet Crikey, ahead of the tabling, framed the question directly: "As the nation's journalists descend on parliament for the 2026 budget, will the government try to sneak through its gambling reforms?" The Alliance for Gambling Reform, Wesley Mission and the Australian Medical Association had each spent the lead-up publicly warning that any response materially short of the Murphy recommendations would amount to a missed generational opportunity.
Based on government announcements and reporting around the tabling, the legislative package contains:
At the tabling, the Prime Minister framed the package as a balance: "We're getting the balance right here, letting adults have a punt if they want to but also making sure Australian children don't see betting ads everywhere they look." Mr Albanese also said children shouldn't grow up thinking "footy and gambling are the same thing".
The package falls materially short of the Murphy Report's central recommendations. Notably absent or unaddressed:
Of the 31 unanimous Murphy recommendations, the substantial majority remain unimplemented or only partially addressed.
The Albanese government does not hold a Senate majority. For the legislation to pass, the government will need the support of either the Coalition or the Greens. That gives the Senate a real opportunity to strengthen the measures — for example, by adding an inducements ban, reducing the daytime advertising cap, or extending restrictions to subscription and streaming platforms. Senate amendments are the realistic near-term path to closer alignment with the Murphy recommendations.
As of June 2026, the parliamentary coalition for stronger reform has broadened significantly beyond the crossbench. Former Prime Minister John Howard, former Liberal premiers Jeff Kennett and Nick Greiner, and seventeen Coalition MPs — including frontbencher Andrew Hastie, deputy Nationals leader Darren Chester, and Cook MP Simon Kennedy, who co-chairs the parliamentary group on gambling harm minimisation — signed an open letter published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on 6 June 2026. The letter called the government's package insufficient, said it left "too many loopholes," and pushed for consideration of a national regulator and a stricter advertising ban. Howard told The Sydney Morning Herald that "the case against it is overwhelming" and that the federal government "would be well advised to follow the advice of their late colleague Peta Murphy."
Senator David Pocock has described the government's response as "cowardly" and has introduced a private senator's bill enacting Recommendation 26 of the Murphy Report — a full advertising ban phased in over three years. Labor backbencher Mike Freelander has said that if parliament were given a conscience vote, "I've got no doubt we'd be able to ban gambling advertising."
The campaign's focus from this point is supporting Senate scrutiny of the legislation as it moves through the parliamentary process.
The Murphy Report's most direct implications for Australian sport are the recommendations on advertising, sponsorship, and stadium signage. The 2027 reforms touch the broadcast layer but leave largely untouched:
Implementing the Murphy recommendations in full would close most of these gaps. A partial response that addresses only the most visible free-to-air advertising leaves the infrastructure of gambling integration into Australian sport largely intact.
With the response now tabled, the action moves to the Senate. The legislation will need either Coalition or Greens support to pass, which gives the Senate real scope to amend it — including by adding an inducements ban, extending advertising restrictions to streaming and subscription platforms, or strengthening the duty-of-care provisions recommended by Murphy.
The most useful thing supporters of stronger reform can do now is make that case visible to their federal MPs and senators — especially crossbench senators and the Coalition MPs who have already signalled support for stronger action.
This page was last updated on 6 June 2026. It will be revised as the legislation progresses through parliament.