Barefoot Investor's direct challenge to Albanese on gambling ads after the PM used his phrase to describe Australian property tax reforms

By CAITLIN POWELL - NEWS REPORTER and NICHOLAS COMINO, POLITICAL REPORTER, AUSTRALIA and ANDREW BROWN FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: 02:58, 16 August 2026 | Updated: 02:59, 16 August 2026 Financial commentator Scott Pape, known as the Barefoot Investor, has issued a tough message to Anthony Albanese about gambling companies targeting children after the Prime Minister read out his last column in parliament. During Question Time on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor attacked Labor for triggering a housing downturn through its tax changes. Labor's reforms, announced in the May Budget, scrapped the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount and replaced it with a flat 30 per cent rate indexed to inflation. Negative gearing concessions were limited to new homes only.  Albanese told Parliament the changes are about giving young Australians a fair crack at home ownership. He then quoted Pape in describing the government's previous policies as resembling 'taxpayer-funded landlord welfare' - a comment that would once have been unthinkable for the PM to make. In response, Pape challenged the Prime Minister to read his latest column on Sunday, which took aim at the betting companies 'hunting' children.  The Barefoot Investor said his wife is currently in Africa filming a documentary about poachers killing rhinos, but said there is a metaphorical 'poacher' in Australia. 'If the Prime Minister likes my column so much, let's see if he'll read this one out in Parliament,' Pape wrote in the Herald Sun. Barefoot Investor Scott Papehas issued a tough message to Anthony Albanese about gambling companies targeting children after the PM read out his column in parliament A Senate inquiry heard gambling companies plied customers with drugs and sex workers to keep on the platform. The sites, such as Sportsbet and Tabcorp, have denied the allegations 'I looked around the kitchen at my four little rhinos... Their mum is over in Africa because there are men who slaughter rare, defenceless animals just because there's money in it. 'Well, we've got poachers here too. Except they're not hunting rhinos... they're hunting our kids. They're the betting companies. 'They use the thing kids (particularly boys) love – sport – to groom them into gambling. Logos on the jersey. Ads on the TV. And odds in their ears before they're old enough to shave. Jackpot!' Pape said that, per head, Australia is losing 'more money on gambling than any other nation on earth'. 'Albo, I don't have the money that the gambling lobbyists do to host a private donors' dinner with you,' he said. 'Yet let me tell you, Book Week is about kids dressing up as characters from a story, but the real story this week is the one our current gambling laws are letting them walk into. 'It sure looks like you're not on the right side of the debate. Otherwise you'd treat these punting poachers like the cigarette companies. You'd ban them from sport completely. No jerseys. No stadiums. No ads at the footy. 'My wife has flown to the other side of the world to stand between the poachers and something that couldn't fight back. You could protect my rhinos and you wouldn't even have to leave the building.' The Prime Minister said on Friday that inducements from gambling companies to keep people having a punt are excessive and should be stopped The Prime Minister said on Friday that inducements from gambling companies to keep people having a punt are excessive and should be stopped. As the federal government and Coalition edge closer to a deal on betting reform, Albanese said measures needed to be put in place to tackle gambling addiction. He said he was confident of the reforms being able to pass parliament in the coming week. '(Inducements) are over the top and they need to be wound back. In particular, some of the inducements that will encourage people into the system are just not on,' he said. 'The problem is addiction, and when someone has an addiction, if there are inducements that are encouraging that addiction, that's a bad thing.' The comments followed a Senate inquiry which heard gambling companies plied customers with drugs and sex workers to keep on the platform. The sites, such as Sportsbet and Tabcorp, have denied the allegations. Labor is attempting to pass reforms through parliament which would ban gambling ads between 6am and 8.30pm, as well as stop the ads in stadiums, on player jerseys and during live sport broadcasts.  However, it has come under fire for not implementing a full ban, as recommended by late Labor MP Peta Murphy in a landmark report handed down in 2023. Labor would need the support of either the Greens or the Coalition to get the changes through the Senate.  Any deal on the reforms is likely to be announced after a Senate inquiry report into the reforms is handed down on Monday. A vote on the reforms is then set to be held in the lower house on Tuesday, with a deal more likely to be reached with the Coalition.