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

I am pleased to hear that from the member for Flinders, although the rest of the Liberal Party have not yet indicated whether they will support these community level initiatives that are part of the government’s binge drinking campaign. Of course those 293 applications still need to be appropriately assessed. But what we would like to know, given that the Liberal Party have been so opposed at every step of the way to any action that we want to take to reduce harmful drinking in our community, is whether the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and member for Curtin will be supporting the six applications that have been received from her electorate. Will the member for Warringah support the five applications that have been submitted from his electorate? Perhaps the new member for Gippsland will be interested to know about and will perhaps advocate for the four applications received from his electorate. We have received five applications from the member for Murray’s electorate. In South Australia, the member for Grey will be able to tell the eight organisations in his electorate whether or not he supports these sorts of funding programs from the government. The Liberal and National parties have to indicate to their electorates and to this parliament whether they are going to do anything and take any action to tackle excessive alcohol consumption in our electorates. What role are the opposition going to play in being part of the solution to this community-wide problem? We in the government are determined to tackle this issue. We have a growing list of supporters in the community, in health services, in hospitals and in the police who are backing our action. Are the opposition going to?

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