Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

with a clear self-interest aligned with the opposition, and we have every other health expert in the country aligned with the government saying that this is a measure which is positive. I will take the House through some of those health professionals: Dr John Herron, a former Liberal senator, now at the Australian National Council on Drugs; David Templeman, the CEO of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia; John Rogerson of the Australian Drug Foundation; Mike Daube from the Public Health Association; and Daryl Smeaton from the Alcohol, Education and Rehabilitation Foundation. But perhaps what will be of most interest to members opposite is that I came across a quote the other day which was given in March by the President of the AMA, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, who gave a very vivid description of the urgency that the problem of alcopops presents to us. Let me read you the quote:

Alco-pops are a specific issue within the binge-drinking problem.

Here you have drinks that are about affordable prices and pretty colours, particularly targeted at young girls - and we’re talking about 12, 13, 14, 15-year-olds.

We have to look at the alcohol industry and how it targets young people with alco-pops. It builds brand loyalty and the kids connect with a type of drink - they’re hooked in.

Then they go off and have an accident, or they’re king hit while waiting in a queue outside a tavern, or they’re raped or are having unprotected sex.

That was from Dr Capolingua, who is not known for necessarily coming out and supporting the position of the government. She is the president of the AMA, a position that the Leader of the Opposition has held himself and apparently wrote the book on. What I am worried about is whether he wrote the book in the week that he supported this measure or in the week that he opposed this measure, because we do not know where the Leader of the Opposition stands on this. But this debate is becoming very clear. You have the health experts and the Rudd government on one side; you have the industry and the opposition on the other side. And there may be a little bit of deja vu in this debate, because it is very like the debate on fuel, where you have the opposition siding with industry and the Rudd government siding with the experts and the consumers. We are interested in protecting young people, and one million standard drinks fewer that have been consumed in the last two weeks is good news.

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