Changes to gambling advertising won’t happen until next month at the earliest as the government scrambles to manage a caucus pushback and resistance from the crossbenches.

The ABC understands the issue will not come before cabinet next week when it meets on Monday, with sources saying they understand a group of Labor MPs are pushing to put the case for a full ban on advertising to the prime minister in person.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is being lobbied by free-to-air TV owners and sporting codes over government plans to limit gambling advertising to two spots per hour on each channel until 10pm and eliminate ads during children’s programs.

However, frustration is growing among supporters of a total ban on advertising, spearheaded by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, and which now has the backing of former prime ministers and state premiers including John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull and Jeff Kennett.

Alongside the backbench, there are also understood to be several cabinet members who support Ms Murphy’s campaign to eliminate gambling advertising from televisions and social media platforms.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week said the government needed to be careful the changes did not have “unintended consequences”. 

Regional media companies such as WIN and Prime rely on revenue from gambling advertisements.

Minister warns gambling ad ban could hurt journalism

Cabinet minister Bill Shorten on Wednesday hit out at “zealot” anti-gamblers, saying it was critical people have access to news for free “and not just through … Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg”.

He said the government would eventually decide on the reforms, but cautioned advocates they could not expect to get everything “exactly” as they demand.

“I don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect. But some of the advocates are saying somehow if we don’t do exactly what they want that somehow, you’re not doing anything at all. And that’s just rubbish,” he said.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for taxation of big tech companies to fund public interest journalism, to reduce any reliance on gambling dollars.

“The gambling lobby have had their claws in both the Labor and Liberal Party for far too long,” she said.

“We can support public interest journalism in this country without sucking the life and happiness out of Australian families, forcing gambling addicts to pay the price.

“We should be banning gambling advertising, taxing the big tech corporations and funding public interest journalism. Gambling addiction is not the solution for public interest journalism.”

She accused the federal government of recently throwing free-to-air broadcasters “under the bus by locking sport behind the paywalls of the global streamers with their anti-siphoning laws”.

“Labor caved to the pressure of the big tech companies like Kayo and Amazon, now they are caving to the gambling lobby.”