The Labor government decided to release its contentious, much-delayed response to Peta Murphy’s report on gambling on one of the biggest political news days of the year. They dropped it while the nation’s federal political journalists were trapped in budget lockup. Tuesday was the first parliament sitting day since the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, sketched out the rough shape of the government’s long-awaited response in his National Press Club speech on 2 April , and therefore the first opportunity to table that report. Government sources are pointing to this procedural rationale to explain the timing of the response, maintaining the scheduling was coincidence, not conspiracy. Albanese announces new restrictions on gambling advertising – video But little is going to shift the claims from gambling harm advocates that – after three years of delay, deliberation and false starts – the government’s timing is, at the least, convenient if they wanted to bury this report.…