Independent upper house MP Meg Webb and lower house MP Kristie Johnston are advocating for a statewide ban on gambling advertising and sponsorship in all publicly owned or state-funded venues across Tasmania, Australia.
Webb and Johnston Set Motion for Ban on Gambling Ads in State Venues
Webb and Johnston plan to introduce the motion in parliament this month, contending that gambling advertising during sporting events has normalized betting as part of everyday life. The proposed ban would apply to signage, digital advertising, uniforms, and broadcast content at all state-owned or publicly funded venues. It would also cover future developments, such as the new Macquarie Point Stadium project, ensuring these restrictions remain in place for generations to come.
According to local news outlet Pulse Tasmania, the proposal aligns with key recommendations from a 2023 federal parliamentary inquiry into online gambling, many of which remain unimplemented at the national level. Webb and Johnston argue that Tasmania can take independent action to adopt these recommendations, aiming to reduce public exposure to gambling promotions and associated harm while federal progress remains stalled.
The motion also sets clear implementation timelines: if approved, agencies would have 12 months to establish and enforce the ban. Additionally, it requires the government to present a progress report to parliament after six months, detailing compliance measures, transitional arrangements, and any granted exemptions.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform has voiced its support for the motion, describing it as a public health initiative that could set a precedent for other states. Spokesperson Mark Kempster said the overwhelming presence of gambling advertising has conditioned audiences, particularly young people, to view betting as an inherent part of sport. He added that eliminating gambling logos and sponsorships from state-funded venues and events would help de-normalize gambling culture and reduce exposure among minors.
Webb and Johnston’s plan is one of a series of initiatives aimed at further regulating the Australian gambling scene recently. For example, last month Northern Territory crossbenchers called for overhauling Australia’s online gambling regulator, claiming the system has grown too large and powerful to function without proper oversight.
Data Seems to Support Gambling Ads Ban
Webb and Johnston’s plan has a high chance of succeeding if we factor in the public’s opinion. Data cited by the motion’s proponents shows strong backing for stricter regulations. National polling indicates that 75% of Australians support a complete ban on gambling advertising, with support rising to 81% for restrictions on online gambling promotions. According to a 2022 survey of AFL fans, reported by Pulse Tasmania, 79% favored removing gambling advertisements from AFL venues.
Additional data from the Australian Gambling Research Center also sheds light on the motivations behind the proposal. It shows that around three million Australians participate in harmful gambling behaviors, with young adults aged 18 to 24 nearly twice as likely to fall into the high-risk category compared to other age groups.
Tasmania’s parliament is expected to debate Webb and Johnston’s motion in December, with advocates describing it as a crucial test case for other states and territories.
Thylacines — marsupials known as Tasmanian tigers — were declared extinct decades ago, but efforts to find one in the wild are thriving. Scientists are also working to bring back the species.
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Thylacines — marsupials known as Tasmanian tigers — were declared extinct decades ago, but efforts to find one in the wild are thriving. Scientists are also working to bring back the species.
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There’s the Loch Ness monster in Scotland. And in the Himalayas, there’s the yeti, the Abominable Snowman. In Tasmania—a teardrop of an island under the eye of the Australian mainland—there’s the thylacine… a creature that brings out folklore… and folks armed with grainy images, convinced they’ve seen the thing. But unlike other mythical creatures, the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, actually—indisputably— existed, an apex predator the size of a small wolf, roamed the island as recently as last century. which gives hope to so many obsessives, dreamers and true believers, looking for the Tasmanian tiger in the bush… and, as you’ll see, in the lab. This is a story that says as much about human nature as it does nature nature. Further proof that—even in the face of science and logic—passion survives in the wild just fine.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve been doing this how many years now?
Adrian Richardson: I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, and (beeping) every day’s an adventure.
Jon Wertheim: All right, here we go.
Getting there wasn’t easy. But Adrian “Richo” Richardson—a retired military man turned self-declared tiger seeker—retraced his steps. tramping around the dense outback of Tasmania on Jan. 28, 2017, 12:45 p.m., he heard the sound…
Adrian Richardson: And then all of a sudden, was this a mighty howl like this. (howls). I was gobsmacked. The hairs on my arm and my neck stood on end. And as that call finished, another one come from the other side of the forestry track. Another howl like that.
Jon Wertheim and Adrian Richardson
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: What’d that one sound like?
Adrian Richardson: Exactly like.. (howls).
Richo craned his neck but saw no creature. Still, he’s sure of what it was: a Tasmanian tiger.
Adrian Richardson: The whole environment went quiet for about a minute. It was an unbelievable feeling. I just can’t explain it.
Jon Wertheim: Yeah. You’re still emotional talking about this.
Adrian Richardson: Oh, look, I’m going to remember that call until the time I die. And then I had to try and prove to others what I’ve heard.
When he returned to his home in Hobart, Tasmania’s capital, he didn’t go down to the pub to share his account. No, he took to his desk and stayed up writing a detailed report, flush with 22 footnotes.
Adrian Richardson: What my passion is. It’s the thylacine. I know it’s there.
Jon Wertheim: And this only reinforced your faith.
Adrian Richardson: Oh. Without a doubt.
One slight hitch—one crimp on the barbie, as it were—the creature Richo describes so vividly and breathlessly? It was declared extinct almost 40 years ago.
Jon Wertheim: Thought, you know, maybe it’s a dingo. May– maybe it’s a wolf.
Adrian Richardson: In Tasmania, we do not have anything remotely like it. We do not even have wild dogs in any form. The only feral things we have around here is deer or cats.
Jon Wertheim: I don’t think deers are making that noise you just made.
Adrian Richardson: No, sir. They did not.
The Tasmanian tiger roamed these parts for thousands of years. More wolf than tiger, it was (is?) a marsupial weighing about 55 pounds…
It was also a carnivore… that preyed on farmers’ sheep. Recalling the fate of the wolf of the American West around the same time, the local government paid out bounties to hunters presenting carcasses… by the mid 1930s, the Tassie tiger population had dwindled to one … captive at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo, where it died in 1936…
With the required 50 years elapsing without a confirmed sighting, the tiger was put on the extinct list in 1986… yet—putting the mania in Tasmania—the search became a national obsession… and the Tasmanian tiger —not the Tasmanian devil—became a sort of local mascot. Its image adorns Tasmania’s coat of arms and government buildings. Here’s the island’s current license plate.
Beer named for the Tasmanian tiger is sold in bars.
60 Minutes
At local watering holes, the regulars put down their Tassie tiger beer long enough to tell you they’ve seen the animal, or know someone who has.
When Nick Mooney was a full-time Hobart biologist, it fell to him to investigate the various Tasmanian tiger accounts. Now in retirement, he’s the island’s unofficial arbiter.
Nick Mooney: I know several people who’ve got clusters of cameras in very remote areas serviced remotely by satellite, and who go and check on the cameras with their own helicopter, all sorts of things.
Jon Wertheim: We’ve moved way beyond the guy with binoculars saying, “I think I may have seen something.”
Nick Mooney: Oh, absolutely.
He can’t help notice: no one ever quite captures a clear image. Still, reported sightings come by the thousands.
Jon Wertheim: Have you ever gotten a report or ever looked into something that, eh, gave you a little pause?
Nick Mooney: Yes. Sometimes people are dead accurate with the times, the places, the distances. And they’re very good naturalists, often don’t exaggerate. Like, they take their skills very seriously. And it’s very hard to say to those people, “I don’t think you saw a thylacine.”
For the devoted army of seekers, the investment isn’t just one of hope and time. Each year, Richo spends, um, more-than-he-cares-to-admit dollars on trail-cam batteries alone.
Jon Wertheim: How much money have you sunk into this obsession?
Adrian Richardson: Sir, I wouldn’t like to speculate. And please don’t tell my wife. (laugh)
Jon Wertheim: Make it our secret.
Adrian Richardson: It’s our secret. She often asks and I go, “Go and get your hair done, darling.” (laughter)
Jon Wertheim: Go shopping. (laugh)
Adrian Richardson: Can I stop that one? Can I stop that one? (laugh) Can we redo that one again? (laughter)
In the bush, we met another enthusiast, Chris Rehberg, who flies down from mainland Australia and approaches the search in the manner of a CSI detective.
Chris Rehberg and Jon Wertheim
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: Apart from the cameras I gather you’ve been scouring for prints, fur, even poo?
Chris Rehberg: Yeah, everything. So scats. Footprints is a big one. And I found a series of 18, 19 individual steps in a track line that are an excellent match for Tassie tiger. Not only are they an excellent match, the quality of the prints is pristine. Scats, keep an eye out, check it out. You know, what’s the animal been eating.? Yeah, and calls if you hear them.
There are even tracking collectives. Richo was part of the Booth Richardson Tiger Team, which made worldwide news in 2017, after calling a press conference to announce a sighting… but when they provided this image as “proof,” Nick Mooney assessed it as a “chance,” but not an official confirmation.
Jon Wertheim: What is the middle ground? You can be right, you can be lying, or what?
Nick Mooney: Or you can have an illusion. And there’s all sorts of ways that our memory can be affected by time. I have had lots of talks with psychiatrists, and ex-detectives trying to figure out this. You really often have to make a choice, a personal call in the end.
Jon Wertheim: To essentially tell them they’re wrong and their mind is deceiving them?
Nick Mooney: You can’t tell ’em that, because you don’t know. Essentially, if you weren’t there, you don’t know.
Richoand all the other seekers won’t have to wait long—they won’t even have to go into the bush—if a group of tech investors and biologists deliver on their goal.
Andrew Pask counts himself among the Tassie-tiger-transfixed. He comes to the quest, though, armed not with binoculars, but a microscope in his TIGRRlab.
Jon Wertheim: Envision that day when you’re not just wearing it on a pin.
Andrew Pask: 100%, yeah. 100%. I think about it all the time, what it would be like to be in that landscape and just to see one walking past in the bush, an actual one, rather than a crappy photograph.
Jon Wertheim: Tell us exactly what you’re doing.
Andrew Pask
60 Minutes
Andrew Pask: We can’t magically bring the Tasmanian tiger back. We have to start with a living cell, and then engineer our thylacine back into existence. So the way you do that is you find the closest living relative to your animal that has gone extinct, and for us that is a small marsupial species called the fat-tailed dunnart.
A developmental biologist at the University of Melbourne, Pask has raised $15 million for a de-extinction project that recalls Jurassic Park….
In partnership with American company Colossal Biosciences, which counts—wait for it— Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton and even the CIA among its backers.
He’s adamant he’ll replicate the genome of a dunnart—a mouse-like marsupial—and turn it into a (much larger) Tassie tiger…we’ll let him explain.
Andrew Pask: We examine all of its DNA, we compare that to the DNA of your extinct species, the Tasmanian tiger, and we look at everywhere that those two genomes, or those two piles of DNA, if you like, are different. And once you’ve identified those differences, it’s just a matter of then going in and making all of those edits to turn your fat-tailed dunnart genome, or cell, into a thylacine cell.
Jon Wertheim: And you’re saying that dunnart—that little field mouse marsupial dunnart—is closer than, say, the Tasmanian devil?
Andrew Pask: But that little dunnart is a ferocious carnivore, even though it’s very, very small. And, it’s a very good surrogate for us to be able to do all of this editing in.
A native of Minnesota, Kris Helgen is director of the Australian Museum Research Institute in Sydney. He understands the push to de-extinct the Tassie tiger…
Kris Helgen: This is one of my favorite mammals.
Jon Wertheim: Really?
Kris Helgen: And I love all (laugh) mammals. I am a mammal guy. This is a special, special animal.
He took us upstairs to his lab to show us why…
Jon Wertheim: What do you make of this de-extinction effort with respect to the Tasmanian tiger?
Jon Wertheim and Kris Helgen
60 Minutes
Kris Helgen: You know, I would be the first person to line up to see this animal if it could be somehow brought back from extinction.
That said, Helgen is the skeptic, gently explaining that wishing Tassie tigers were running rampant doesn’t overcome science.
Kris Helgen: This is an impossible project.
Jon Wertheim: We all love optimism. We all love innovation.
Kris Helgen: What they’re saying is, “We’re going to modify the genome of a dunnart to create a genetically modified dunnart that might look a bit more like a thylacine. Maybe we’ll be able to tweak it genetically and it gets a bit bigger. Maybe we’ll be able to tweak it genetically and it has some stripes on it. But there is about 1,001 steps in between.
Helgen has thought about the source of the current Tassie tiger passion… and wonders how much of it is driven by remorse.
Kris Helgen: It’s a special symbol about Australia and about what we’ve lost. We’ve had a lot of extinctions here. In the last 100, 200 years, 30 mammals alone. So in the United States, only one or two mammal species have disappeared entirely.
Jon Wertheim: So why are people taking this seriously? And why are people investing so much in this?
Kris Helgen: So many people have the dream, “If we could just get this animal back.” Maybe, it would help us think different about extinction or the guilt that we might feel of having removed such a special animal from the planet. Whether, you know, they imagined it might be still hiding in Tasmania or in a lab to be reborn, there’s this burning hope.
Richo reckons that if his countrymen in the DNA sequencing labs can resurrect a Tassie tiger, good on’ em… but, regardless, he’ll continue coming here… faith unshaken, he’s certain this animal most famous for being extinct, is not extinct at all.
Jon Wertheim: If someone accused you of being obsessed, would you plead guilty?
Adrian Richardson: Oh, sir. I put my hand up to that. Your Honor, I am guilty.
Jon Wertheim: You’re Tasmanian tiger obsessive.
Adrian Richardson: I am, indeed. It’s been my love.
Jon Wertheim: Why is that? I mean why have you continued to search so-so long for this?
Adrian Richardson: I just know it’s there. I do. In my own heart, I know it’s there.
And if it isn’t there? Well, we say what’s the harm in searching? Coming to the planet’s sub-basement, bush-bashing this gorgeous terrain? There are worse ways—and places—to spend your days.
Produced by Jacqueline Williams. Associate producer, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Patrick Lee.
An Orange-Bellied Parrot perched on the edge of a feeding bowl. The species is listed as being critically endangered.
Margot Kiesskalt | Istock | Getty Images
Plans for a major new wind farm in Australia were given the thumbs up this month — on the provision its turbines go offline for five months a year to protect a parrot species.
In an environmental assessment report of the Robbins Island Renewable Energy Park, Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority said its board had “determined to approve the proposal” for the project, which could have as many as 122 wind turbines and is overseen by ACEN Australia.
One of the approval conditions relates to the Orange-bellied parrot, which the Australian government says is critically endangered.
“Unless otherwise approved in writing by the EPA Board, all WTG [wind turbine generators] must be shut down during the northern OBP migration period (1 March to 31 May inclusive) and the southern OBP migration period (15 September to 15 November inclusive),” the EPA document says.
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In a statement last week, EPA board chair Andrew Paul said the organization had concluded that “significant mitigation measures” were needed in relation to “potential impacts on the orange-bellied parrot population.”
This was due to “the limited knowledge about the importance of Robbins Island in the annual northern and southern migrations” as well as a need to account for a National Recovery Plan for the species.
“This has led to the inclusion of [project approval] condition FF6 which imposes shutdown periods during the migrations totaling five months when the turbines cannot operate,” Paul added.
Robbins Island is located in waters off the northwest coast of Tasmania, a large island and Australian state. If all goes to plan, the total capacity of the proposed wind farm could be as much as 900 megawatts.
CNBC contacted ACEN Australia via the Robbins Island project’s website, but did not receive a response prior to publication. The Ayala Corporation, parent company of ACEN Australia majority-owner ACEN Corporation, did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.
In a Facebook post, project developers said they welcomed approval from the EPA, adding that further approvals were needed from the Circular Head Council and the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. These were expected in early 2023, they said.
The firm would “need to consider our options going forward,” the ABC report quoted Pollington as saying.
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Amid global plans to ramp up wind power capacity in the years ahead, the interaction of wind turbines with the natural world — including marine and bird life — is likely to become a key area of debate.
The U.K.-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warns that wind farms “can harm birds through disturbance, displacement, acting as barriers, habitat loss and collision,” adding that “impacts can arise from a single development and cumulatively multiple projects.”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has said that some wind projects and turbines can result in bat and bird casualties.
“These deaths may contribute to declines in the population of species also affected by other human-related impacts,” it notes. “The wind energy industry and the U.S. government are researching ways to reduce the effect of wind turbines on birds and bats.”
Brussels-based industry body WindEurope says the effects of projects can be prevented “by adequately planning, siting, and designing wind farms.”
“The impact of wind farms on birds and bats is extremely low compared to the impact of climate change and other human activity,” it adds.
For decades, nobody knew where the remains of the last thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, were located.
It turns out they were hiding in plain sight – at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), in the Australian island state, where they had been unidentified for more than 80 years.
About the size of a coyote, the thylacine disappeared about 2,000 years ago virtually everywhere except Tasmania. As the only marsupial apex predator that lived in modern times, it played a key role in the island’s ecosystem, but that also made it unpopular with humans.
European settlers on Tasmania in the 1800s blamed thylacines for livestock losses (although, in most cases, feral dogs and human habitat mismanagement were actually the culprits), and they hunted the shy, semi-nocturnal Tasmanian tigers to extinction.
The last known thylacine was an old female captured by a trapper and sold to a zoo in May 1936, according to a TMAG news release published Monday.
The animal died several months later, with its body transferred to the museum afterward. But the zoo kept no records about the sale because ground-based snaring was illegal – meaning the trapper could have faced a fine, the release said.
That meant researchers and staff at the museum were wholly unaware of the significance of the thylacine in their collection.
“For years, many museum curators and researchers searched for its remains without success, as no thylacine material dating from 1936 had been recorded in the zoological collection, and so it was assumed its body had been discarded,” said Robert Paddle, a comparative psychologist from the Australian Catholic University, in the news release.
After being brought to TMAG, the thylacine’s body was skinned and its skeleton taken apart as part of an education collection, used by museum teachers to explain thylacine anatomy to students, and often transported outside the museum, according to the release.
During that time, most of the world mistakenly thought another thylacine that died at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart on September 7, 1936 was the last known individual of its species.
The mistake wasn’t realized until recently, when an unpublished museum taxidermist’s report was discovered. The report, dated 1936-1937, mentioned a thylacine among the specimens worked on that year – prompting a review of all thylacine skins and skeletons at TMAG, where the last thylacine was finally identified.
“It is bittersweet that the mystery surrounding the remains of the last thylacine has been solved, and that it has been discovered to be part of TMAG’s collection,” said TMAG director Mary Mulcahy.
The remains are now on display in the museum’s thylacine gallery for public viewing.
In recent years, the Tasmanian tiger has reappeared in headlines due to ongoing – and controversial – efforts by scientists to bring back the animal through ancient DNA retrieval, gene editing and artificial reproduction.
CANBERRA, Australia — A young bar-tailed godwit appears to have set a non-stop distance record for migratory birds by flying at least 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania, a bird expert said Friday.
The bird was tagged as a hatchling in Alaska during the Northern Hemisphere summer with a tracking GPS chip and tiny solar panel that enabled an international research team to follow its first annual migration across the Pacific Ocean, Birdlife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler said. Because the bird was so young, its gender wasn’t known.
Aged about five months, it left southwest Alaska at the Yuko-Kuskokwim Delta on Oct. 13 and touched down 11 days later at Ansons Bay on the island of Tasmania’s northeastern tip on Oct. 24, according to data from Germany’s Max Plank Institute for Ornithology. The research has yet to be published or peer reviewed.
The bird started on a southwestern course toward Japan then turned southeast over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, a map published by New Zealand’s Pukoro Miranda Shorebird Center shows.
The bird was again tracking southwest when it flew over or near Kiribati and New Caledonia, then past the Australian mainland before turning directly west for Tasmania, Australia’s most southerly state. The satellite trail showed it covered 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) without stopping.
“Whether this is an accident, whether this bird got lost or whether this is part of a normal pattern of migration for the species, we still don’t know,” said Woehler, who is part of the research project.
Guinness World Records lists the longest recorded migration by a bird without stopping for food or rest as 12,200 km (7,580 miles) by a satellite-tagged male bar-tailed godwit flying from Alaska to New Zealand.
That flight was recorded in 2020 as part of the same decade-old research project, which also involves China’s Fudan University, New Zealand’s Massey University and the Global Flyway Network.
The same bird broke its own record with a 13,000-kilometer (8,100-mile) flight on its next migration last year, researchers say. But Guinness has yet to acknowledge that feat.
Woehler said researchers did not know whether the latest bird, known by its satellite tag 234684, flew alone or as part of a flock.
“There are so few birds that have been tagged, we don’t know how representative or otherwise this event is,” Woehler said.
“It may be that half the birds that do the migration from Alaska come to Tasmania directly rather than through New Zealand or it might be 1%, or it might be that this is the first it’s ever happened,” he added.
Adult birds depart Alaska earlier than juveniles, so the tagged bird was unlikely to have followed more experienced travelers south, Woehler said.
Woehler hopes to see the bird once wet weather clears in the remote corner of Tasmania, where it will fatten up having lost half its body weight on its journey.
CANBERRA, Australia — Flood warnings were issued, hundreds of homes were evacuated, thousands more lost power and a man was missing as heavy rain lashed southeast Australia on Thursday.
Rivers across Australia’s most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, and the island state of Tasmania were rising dangerously with catchments soaked by months of above-average rainfall.
Around 250 homes in the New South Wales city of Forbes, west of Sydney, were ordered to be evacuated by Thursday night ahead of major flooding.
The State Emergency Service issued an order for 17 streets including the central downtown precinct to be evacuated by 8 p.m., (0900 GMT) with the Lachlan River expected to reach a major flood peak of 10.6 meters (34 feet, 9 inches) by Friday.
Police said a 63-year-old man was last seen on Tuesday on a rural property on the Lachlan River near the New South Wales town of Hillston, west of Sydney. He was reported missing hours later but emergency crews have failed to find any sign of him.
Police on Tuesday found the body of a 46-year-old man in his submerged car in floodwater near the city of Bathurst, west of Sydney.
To the south in Victoria, emergency crews rescued at least 23 people driving through floodwaters in rural areas after heavy overnight rain, officials said.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews urged people not to drive or walk into floodwaters.
“It’s very dangerous for you, and it’s also very dangerous for the person who has to come to rescue you,” Andrews said.
State Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said the heavy rain would reach metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria’s capital and Australia’s most populous city after Sydney, late Thursday.
Officials have been door-knocking along the Maribyrnong River in inner-Melbourne to ensure residents were ready to evacuate if necessary.
“We will see significant rainfall across the metropolitan area and … see potential for flash flooding,” Crisp said.
Sarah-Jane Gill, a manager at the Rochester Riverside Holiday Park in the town of Rochester, north of Melbourne, said she had evacuated guests on Thursday as the Campaspe River rose.
“It is scary. You laugh in the face of it all, but we’re very nervous,” Gill said.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued major flood warnings for the Campaspe and another four Victorian waterways.
The Campaspe’s peak at Rochester on Friday could exceed a record 9.12 meters (29 feet, 11 inches) set in 2011. That could flood 250 Rochester homes above the floorboards and isolate another 700 homes, the State Emergency Service said.
Nearly 10,000 homes in Victoria were without power overnight, with hundreds yet to be restored, said the State Control Center, which manages Victoria’s emergencies, and electricity distributor Powercor.
In the northern Tasmanian town of Railton, 90 homes were threatened by floodwaters after overnight rain.
The State Emergency Service issued an emergency warning for Railton, urging residents to prepare to evacuate.
The state’s northern half was on high alert for flash flooding, with heavy rain forecast to continue into Friday morning.
State Emergency Service director Leon Smith said flood peaks in northern Tasmania might reach levels last experienced in 2016 when three people drowned.
“It is a very dynamic situation that we’re monitoring, but inevitably we will see flooding that will have significant consequences,” Smith said.
