Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

If you look at the comments on this measure from the respected health authorities of the nation, they make for sobering reading. The Public Health Association of Australia President, Professor Michael Daube, said:

This is a timely response to a growing social problem.

He continued:

There is now dramatic evidence showing that young women are out-drinking their male counterparts—and unfortunately many of them drink to get drunk … This has been helped by the ready availability of cheap spirit-based drinks, which have become the first choice of young women. Alcopops are the first … drink for as many as 60 per cent of girls.

We then go on to the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation CEO, Daryl Smeaton, who said:

International evidence demonstrates that taxing alcopops at the same rate as bottled spirits will change the consumption patterns amongst young people and lead to less alcohol-related harm.

We have here, from the respected public health authorities of the nation—the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, the Australian Drug Foundation, the Public Health Association of Australia, and the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation of Australia—this series of considered remarks in response to the measure which was introduced by the government in the budget.

What stuns me is that the Leader of the Opposition, a former president of the AMA, when he first heard of this measure that we introduced said what I thought was the responsible thing:

The proposed increase in the excise on alcopops is something that will be supported by us …

I find it quite extraordinary that, within a week or so in politics, we have a flip-flop on this, as we have had a flip-flop on the whole question of means testing and on every measure under the sun, on the part of those opposite.

This is a difficult and complex area. What the government seek to do through this measure is to close a tax loophole which has been there, created by those opposite back in 2000, and to act in a responsible way to reduce the growth in RTDs and their consumption across the country. We will add to these measures in the future when it comes to other forms of policy which can help to deal with the binge-drinking crisis in Australia. The government are committed to acting in this area. Those opposite, I am sad to say, now pit themselves against the respected public health authorities of the nation and the repeated calls of police commissioners and others across the country to act in this area of critical need. I believe that working families across the country will know which piece of policy actually deals with this problem, as opposed to those who exhibit no interest in it.

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