Minister's Words To Gambling Reform Advocate 'Stunning'.

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Communications Minister Anika Wells is under fire from a host of supporters and crossbenchers for informing a previous betting addict to encourage betting companies about reforms, not her.


Kate Seselja got rid of a pokies addiction that nearly resulted in her taking her own life.


Ms Seselja said Ms Wells told her throughout a meeting in August 2025 it was not the minister who required convincing about betting reforms but the betting business, and sporting codes that generated revenue from betting.


"I was flabbergasted," Ms Seselja told AAP.


"To be asked if I had actually attempted to have meetings with them, as a lived experience advocate, was horrific.


"To have that level of disconnect to the reality of gambling harm dealt with by countless Australians, to recommend that people with lived experience go fulfill with these predators, made me lose belief in the political system."


Fellow supporter Anna Bardsley from the Gambling Harm Lived Experience Experts (GHLEE), who also went to the conference, corroborated the exchange.


Ms Wells' workplace did not deny the remark was made, stating the minister welcomed the opportunity to fulfill with the two advocates to listen to their experience with gambling damage.


A representative pointed to Labor government procedures including the introduction of the self-exclusion register BetStop, a restriction on charge card for online gaming and changes to warning taglines after ads.


"The Australian government takes seriously our obligation to secure Australians, particularly young and susceptible individuals, from the damages of online betting," the representative stated.


Independent MP Kate Chaney branded the minister's remarks a betrayal of Australians experiencing gambling damage, saying they were "shocking but sadly not surprising".


"Being told to lobby the gaming market yourself, after a decade of determined advocacy and almost losing your life to addiction, is an extensive failure of management," she stated.


Ms Seselja said staff from the interaction minister's workplace told her to keep battling for reforms throughout a subsequent conference in March.


"I in fact broke down and lost it at the staffer, because I said to her, if you're not going to do your task, then resource GHLEE to do it," Ms Seselja said.


"People are passing away and nobody is stopping the carnage."


Independent senator David Pocock described Ms Seselja's recount as deeply unpleasant, while independent MP Monique Ryan attacked the government for stopping working to take obligation for the problem or withstand beneficial interests.


Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Tim Costello branded the remarks and inactiveness on the concern "a complete failure of federal government", adding he was gobsmacked the federal government had not responded to a gambling harm report launched almost 1000 days earlier.


The landmark report into gambling harm bied far in June 2023 by late Labor MP Peta Murphy suggested a phase-out of marketing, curbing incentives and an overarching national harm-reduction structure.