Those of us who gave testimony to Labor’s gambling inquiry now wonder why we bothered being vulnerable | Anna Bardsley

Yet another government inquiry’s findings have been all but ignored. Those of us who gave testimony to the federal inquiry into online gambling, chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, are now left wondering why we bothered being vulnerable. Many of us spent hours working on what we would say, but our evidence has seemingly been tossed aside by a federal government too scared or too lazy to take real action.

For some of us, it’s been decades of speaking out, of being the “case study”, the “real person” affected by gambling harm. We’re only permitted to speak when someone else thinks it is appropriate. We honestly thought this time would be different due to the passionate driving force behind this inquiry – the inimitable Peta Murphy. We believed the Albanese government when they said they would honour her legacy by enacting real gambling reform.

My experience of working with the committee was one of the most positive I have had since I started speaking out, more than a decade ago, about gambling and the harm the industry causes. From my first email asking the committee to consider the language it used, to being one of those presenting testimony and supporting others to do the same, there was a consistently respectful response. I met Peta Murphy on several occasions, and her sincere commitment to bringing about change was deeply moving.

The evidence is in – hours and hours of it presented to the inquiry from those who have lived experience, researchers and advocates. The findings and recommendations are all there in the report, You Win Some, You Lose More.

Yet the Albanese government appears to be walking away from the report’s unanimous recommendations, with reports suggesting it will pursue a partial ban on gambling advertising, instead of the recommended blanket ban. The government continues to meet with a long list of gambling lobbyists, but the real stakeholders are the Australian community, and most especially those affected by gambling harm. There is a clear conflict of interest here, chiefly from the millions of dollars the gambling industry and those connected with it have poured into the coffers of political parties as donations.

When will we finally see some political bravery? When will we see a united stand against a dangerous industry that is siphoning off tens of billions of dollars from the Australian people and its economy every year, all while lives and families are ruined?

We’ve done the hard yards from our end; we’ve done the recovery work and found our way out of the abyss that is gambling harm. We’ve fought against the labels slapped on us such as “problem gamblers”, “degenerate gamblers”, “losers” and “zombies”. We are more than our sad stories, but we choose to tell them again and again because, as in every other tough place, those closest to the pain are the ones closest to the solutions.

We thank the people who have stood beside us and said “enough” – the researchers, therapists, activists, public servants, and those rare elected officials at local, state and federal levels who have made it their life’s work to tackle this massive problem. We thank Peta Murphy for her valiant attempts to make things right before cancer took her too-short life.

It’s hard not to think of the gambling industry as a cancer on Australia. As someone touched by cancer, as most of us have been, I don’t use those words lightly. But it’s hard not to see the parallels with the insidious and pervasive nature of the gambling industry. Like many cancers, it is also responsible for being a silent killer of too many Australians. It’s time to remove this scourge. It’s time for our governments to actually listen and enact the recommended reforms instead of ignoring them.

Anna Bardsley is co-founder of GHLEE, Gambling Harm Lived Experience Experts