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

I am happy to answer each of these questions but I will be able to get through them more so if you would allow me to go through each and every one of them. So $14.4 million for the community initiatives is available. We do expect that a large number of the applications that will be made will be from organisations working with young people, but they are certainly not going to be exclusively for that. He also flagged what other funding would be available for initiatives that are going to target drinking to excessive levels in the broader community.

We actually have on foot a number of strategies, including the $4½ million that has been allocated to our prevention task force. Its three key jobs are to look at strategies that we should adopt across the community for reducing the risks from excessive alcohol consumption, tobacco use and obesity. We expect that their work will be done primarily by the middle of next year, and they will provide us with advice along the way. Obviously, if there are options that can be considered as part of the future budget process we will do that, but we are determined to do this in a comprehensive way. Part of what all governments do is, for example, ensure that we have the most up-to-date information and medical research reflected in guidelines and prepared by medical experts. I am a little bit surprised that the opposition seems to be poo-pooing that as a process. That will be made public by the end of this month or next month. I would have thought it was the sort of initiative that is exactly targeted at providing information to both younger and older members of the community.

The member asked a question about advice in terms of the alcopops measure. The member has the answers that were given by my department, quite rightly, at estimates. As was also made clear, if the member read the full details, there were of course discussions between my department and Treasury. That does not necessarily constitute formal advice, but there was plenty of evidence which Treasury was referred to in terms of the health impacts of this measure. That has also been tabled in the House and, I think, it was provided throughout the estimates process.

I can put the member’s mind to rest about some figures relating to the chronic disease program for dental care. We have previously sought to explain this to the member, but he does not appear to have been able to absorb the fact that there is a difference between the number of people served and the number of services provided. The people who use the program often have a range of services provided, so it is right that the number of services will always be larger than the number of people—often in the order of three or four times. It is also right that there was a large increase in the take-up of the program from November last year because of the changes that the previous government introduced.

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