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

The more Joe shouts out loud the more we know Joe does not like to hear it. That is basically the bottom line. We believe that these measures can be conducted currently within the set of arrangements which apply to the legal drinking age in Australia. We have no plans for changes on that score. We will, however, have much more to say on the whole question of dealing with the challenge of binge drinking. But I go back to the first premise: we take the advice from the police commissioners and the health authorities seriously. We are acting on the problem of binge drinking. Those opposite say, ‘Don’t worry about it. You can’t do anything about it. Simply tolerate what’s occurring at present,’ and in fact at the edge say, ‘Well, there’s not really much of a problem at all.’ There is a very clear alternative here: a Labor government with a plan of action on binge drinking, with still much more to do, and those opposite who are content to sit idly by, do nothing and simply engage in opportunistic politics on the way through. Frankly, on this they stand condemned.

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