The Anglican General Synod (the Church Parliament) has passed a strongly worded motion, without any opposing vote, urging the Federal government to go all the way and implement all the reforms that Peta Murphy, the late member for Dunkley, campaigned for.
Here is how mover of the motion, Dean Sandy Grant of Sydney, responded to the recent federal parliamentary inquiry: “The [Sydney] Synod has – on multiple occasions – expressed unanimous support for the full implementation of the 31 recommendations of the ‘Murphy Inquiry’, I am confident my viewsrepresent fairly the views of the vast majority of Sydney Anglicans in over 250 parishes in andaround Sydney.” Grant can now update this with the news that the national church, at the general synod has taken the same stand
“In brief I commend genuinely the Labor Government for the reforms announced to the advertising of sports bet products (especially on sports uniforms, grounds, and via celebrities) and other steps taken to address gambling harm, announced by the Prime Minister on 2 April 2026.
“These steps are positive but insufficient. I urge the Parliament to implement implement fully the Murphy Report, especially the phase in of a full online gambling advertising ban and the banning of gambling inducements.
“I note that neither of these steps involve banning gambling itself. I am motivated by Christ’s command to love one’s neighbours and by the biblical injunction to rulers in Proverbs 31:8-9: Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
In his speech to General Synod, Grant warned that this reform required a resolute and persistant campaign.
“We need to learn from how Wilberforce spent 20 years fighting the slave trade and almost another two decades seeing slavery itself outlawed in the British empire. I suggested we needed to understand gambling reform might occur in many steps and so required our long-term perseverance in advocacy for greater protections for those vulnerable to gambling harm.”
Behind the motion is many stories of personal pain. Sandy Grant tells this story “I recently spoke with a fellow Anglican minister whose father was a compulsive gambler. He grew up watching what that did to his family – the secrecy, the money that disappeared, the trust that had to be rebuilt again and again. This minister still has relatives for whom a trip to the club is not a treat but a compulsion. I sensed the deep pain of this experience and his consequential passion for comprehensive reform.”
The motion:
1. out of love for our neighbours, again calls on the Parliament of Australia to enact comprehensive online gambling harm minimisation reforms which implement fully the recommendations of the report of the parliamentary inquiry chaired by the late member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy, entitled “You Win Some, You Lose More”; specifically:
a) the banning of gambling inducements,
b) the full phase in of a comprehensive gambling advertising ban,
c) the closure of streaming and live sport advertising loopholes,
d) introduction of harm prevention measures like deposit limits and affordability checks, and
e) the creation of an independent national gambling regulator.
2. requests the Primate to write to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition informing them of this resolution and encourages individual members of Synod to inform their own federal MP of General Synod’s view, with whatever personal advocacy they wish to add for the welfare and public health of our nation’s young people and other vulnerable persons.
Image: Anti-gambling advertising campaign by Get Up. Image credit: Media That Moves