Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think the situation that occurred at Imanpa the other night was probably instructive. I mentioned it in my earlier speech. The police were out of town for one night and people were selling six-packs of beer for $50. Extraordinary! And I know that someone was sent on a grog run to Alice Springs. So they have two choices in this instance: do they hang around town or do they get out? How do they get the amount of alcohol? If we can help reduce that, so much the better. To your direct point: this is a moving feast. Part of what we have allowed here has been on the advice of the task force, Major General Dave Chalmers and Dr Sue Gordon, to remove the restrictions in localities where it is quickly established that there is a solid foundation to go forward. We have gone with $100, as opposed to 1,350 millilitres, in consultation with various parts of the industry in the Territory, and we will continue to do that. What we will not do is undermine what we have to achieve. I fully accept what you say, that there will be some Territorians who say, ‘Blow me; I have never done anything wrong and I have to put up with this because somebody else has done something wrong.’ We want to minimise that, but I will not run away from the fact that—notwithstanding there will be some inconvenience, unintended as it may be, to a small number of people—we want a limit for as short a period of time as possible, but not say that the destruction that is occurring to other Australians is of lesser importance. We are asking people to participate.

It is a difficult message for some who do not really want to hear that, but it is one of the things you have to do if you are serious about trying to deal with it. I guess it is one of the reasons people have said in the past that it cannot be done. The member for New England mentioned a reason earlier—that you could bring it in from here and you can do that. Laws are laws and they are only as good as their enforceability and the agencies to do that, and there will always be those who try and circumvent them for their own purposes. I am not pretending for one moment that this is perfect; nothing here is perfect. The Queensland government has tried hard—it has had a big impact—but you find it then plateaus and you need to be doing different things.

I think the point the member for Lingiari is alluding to is crucial. Ultimately, reducing the amount of alcohol that people wish to consume—changing behaviour—is absolutely essential. You do not get to that point straight up; you have to do some things to forcibly prevent it. You implement substance abuse programs and get people engaged in things that are important in life, rather than thinking the only thing that is important is waiting for the bottle shop to open. That is what we really have to avoid.

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