Calls for gambling ads ban to prevent gendered violence
Holly Hales |
Gambling advertisements should be banned and alcohol sales restricted to help prevent domestic and family violence, a snap review has found.
The recommendations were delivered on Friday in a report by a rapid review expert panel tasked by the federal government with investigating prevention approaches to Australia’s rise in gendered violence.
National cabinet’s meeting on gender-based violence in May triggered the report after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled the issue a national crisis.
In 2023, 58 women in Australia were victims of alleged domestic homicide, up from 35 killed in 2022 and 33 killed in 2021.
That figure has already passed 54 in the first eight months of 2024.
The report noted there was clear evidence linking alcohol abuse and problem gambling to domestic, family and sexual violence but that regulation of the industries had largely ignored the connection.
It called for restrictions on alcohol sales, delivery timeframes and advertising along with adopting “clear objectives” in state and territory liquor regulatory regimes to prevent gender-based violence.
Stronger restrictions leading to a total ban on gambling advertising were also recommended.
More than one-in-three incidents of physical intimate partner violence involve alcohol, and alcohol-related incidents are twice as likely to involve severe physical violence and life-threatening injuries, according to the report.
The Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network found that over 60 per cent of males who killed a female intimate partner engaged in problematic drug and/or alcohol use in the lead-up to, or at the time of, the homicide.
The review also expressed concern that mainstream pornography had become the most prominent form of sex education for young people, normalising dangerous sexual practices including choking.
When this act is used in the context of intimate partner violence, it increases the likelihood of future homicide by 700 per cent, the report said.
Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said the report was “thoughtful and considered” and acknowledged that preventing violence is “complex”.
“The guidance in this report will help government build on the national plan and its existing work and consider how to further prevent violence – to stop it from occurring in the first instance, to prevent it from escalating, and to stop women being killed,” Ms Gallagher said.
“(This report) provides important insights to guide our prevention efforts to ensure they continue to be effectively targeted, with the highest possible impact.”
Sexual Assault Services Victoria chief executive Kathleen Maltzahn said honing in on Australians’ gambling, alcohol and pornography habits was an important step in stopping violence.
“This report marks a shift from seeing prevention as mainly about changing attitudes to including other related drivers of sexual violence – gambling, alcohol and pornography,” Mr Maltzahn said.
“Changing attitudes about women is crucial. But it’s not enough.
“We need to use every lever available to us – and that means tackling the undeniable impact of pornography, gambling and alcohol.”
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AAP
