High-profile federal politicians and community health groups have backed independent NT MLA Justine Davis’ move to introduce reforms to the Territory’s gambling regulation laws, that she says currently put industry profits over people through an NT-based regulator with ongoing weak conflict of interest controls and lax regulations that cause harm across the country.

The more than 30 organisations and individuals supporting Ms Davis’ reforms, including local groups and independent federal politicians David Pocock, Zali Steggall, Lidia Thorpe and Andrew Wilkie, have signed an open letter to the NT CLP Government calling on it to show “national leadership” and hold gambling companies “accountable”.

It comes ahead of Ms Davis introducing a bill to NT Parliament next week that would make prevention of gambling harm the “clear purpose of gambling laws”, strengthen conflicts of interest rules for wagering commission members, ban inducements to problem gamblers and introduce stronger penalties for operators that fail to meet their obligations.

But the Finocchiaro CLP Government is likely to use its numbers to block the bill next week, with the Racing Minister rejecting the open letter as a “lecture” from outsiders, while pledging to protect the Territory’s “lifestyle”.

Ms Davis said her gambling harm prevention bill is necessary because the Federal Labor Government did not make any “meaningful changes” to gambling regulation when it had the chance earlier this year – including introducing a national regulator. The NT now needs to act, she said, because many of the country’s online gambling companies are based here due to generous tax incentives and weak regulations that puts tremendous responsibility on the Territory regulator, whose lack of action has caused harm across the country.

“That’s why I’m launching a petition [and bill] to send a clear message to the NT Government: Territorians and Australians expect gambling laws to put people before profit,” Ms Davis said.

“The NT has a choice – it can continue to benefit from a gambling industry that profits from people’s losses, or it can show leadership and put the protection of people first.

“It’s time to act on gambling harm. It’s time for laws that protect people, not profit.”

The open letter to the NT Government released this week endorsed the legislation, stating that the “Northern Territory has a unique opportunity to show national leadership on gambling harm”.

“Australians lose more to gambling per capita than any other country in the world, but our current laws allow harmful industry practices to continue, and people are paying the price,” the letter stated.

“This is not about stopping gambling. This is about stopping harm.

“We believe the priority of gambling laws should be protecting people from gambling harm, not protecting gambling industry profits.”

The letter was signed by the federal independent politicians, as well as gambling reform advocates, including Tim Costello, the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT, NT Council of Social Services, the Australian Christian Lobby, the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Suicide Prevention Australia and various medical professionals.

Minister for Racing Marie-Clare Boothby said her government would “consider all sensible proposals on their merits”, but added that “you can’t legislate personal responsibility”.

“We won’t risk pushing punters into the arms of unregulated offshore operators – and we won’t take lectures from activists and politicians in Canberra when it comes to our Territory lifestyle,” Ms Boothby said.

She added the NT’s gambling industry employs “thousands of Territorians, keeps hospitality venues open and invests back into our community groups, events and sports clubs”.

Ms Boothby also pointed to reforms her government has implemented, including “deliver[ing] on the strategic racing review to modernise racing governance and wagering regulation”.

“We now have an independent Wagering Commission dedicated to licensing, compliance, enforcement, and consumer protection,” she said.

That “independent” commission was separated from the former racing and wagering commission earlier this year, but the new body has many of the previous members, including chair Alastair Shields and members Susan Kirkman and Ian Curnow.

No real action on conflicts of interest in regulator a year after Four Corners expose

The NT’s heavily conflicted regulatory body and its weak regulations were the focus of an ABC Four Corners’ investigation in October last year that featured Mr Shields fleeing a reporter’s questions in an old Mercedes that failed to start during his hasty getaway.

The investigative report exposed deep failures by the then-racing and wagering commission to hold the industry to account amid predatory practices while also revealing a “cosy relationship” between the industry and regulator, including concerning comments Mr Shields made at a gambling industry forum, in which he allegedly bragged about how members of the NT’s racing commission, including himself, owned horses, implying it was industry-friendly.

The CLP’s reforms saw the racing and wagering commission separated into two bodies, as well as several other minor changes, including that conflicts of interest be reported to the Minister but that failure to disclose would not affect the validity of the commission’s decisions.

Ms Davis said all of that needed to change and proper conflict of interest controls implemented.

Her bill would see wagering commission members forced to disclose conflicts of interest at every meeting and in writing by imposing financial penalties for failing to disclose. Those conflicts would also be publicly disclosed. The reforms would also ban accepting gifts from gambling companies and would forbid commission members from holding accounts with betting companies.

Ms Boothby and the CLP appeared to accept Mr Shields’ claims the wagering commission members would self-regulate strong enough and made no real changes earlier this year to rules around accepting gifts, conflicts of interest or disclosures.

Ms Davis’ bill would also forbid ex-members of the commission from taking employment within the industry for five years after leaving the regulator and see the make-up of the commission changed to include members with “harm-related experience”, including one with specific experience in gambling harm.

It would also increase the time limit for complaints against gambling companies to six years, removing the current two-year cap.

Ms Davis’ bill will be introduced in Parliament on October 14.