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

I am not going to detain the House by going back and forth over old ground with the shadow minister. I am happy to address some of the new issues that he has raised. Firstly, he seems to suggest that, by introducing amendments today, we are rushing some procedure through—that we have been forced to do this because of our rush to change the laws. The sad truth is we have been forced to do this because of the surprisingly low levels to which the distillers are prepared to stoop to get around legislation that has been introduced and tabled—the proposals have been in effect since April last year—and is now before the House and will be before the Senate in the coming weeks.

We saw a very quick response from the industry, who oppose this measure. I understand why they do: it massively affects their products. We do not apologise for that. We understand why they disagree with us. We do not understand why the opposition necessarily lines up with them, but that is another matter. They have gone to extraordinary levels to get around the measures in this bill, and we are not prepared to stand by and watch laws that we intend to pass be made a mockery of by the industry, who were prepared to distort products, to go to all lengths to remove the taste of beer or wine, to turn the products into sugary, colourful drinks for teenagers and to continue to promote them to the under-age market.

As I said in other comments that I have made today, I welcome the fact that the new shadow minister does at least acknowledge that this is a problem. He does, and that is a change. I welcome that and I think it is a sign for us that we can work on something together. But unfortunately it does not make it easier.

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