Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

It is amazing, to say the least, that this health minister has not been able to point to one shred of evidence that this measure has resulted in any reduction in binge drinking at all. This health minister knows that, instead of consuming alcopops, many of these young people have now moved on to harder spirits. They have moved on to mixing their own spirits, so they, particularly young women, face the risk of spiked drinks. In this debate the government have put themselves in a position where they have not offered one shred of evidence that the collection of $1.6 billion will help one young person in reducing binge-drinking behaviour. That is an astounding claim by this minister, who has dodged this question at every turn as part of this debate over the last 12 months.

The department have been asked questions at Senate estimates and, under direction from the minister and her office, they have refused to provide even the most basic of details. It is a sad indictment of the government, because this bill was only ever set up to run a media cycle through the weekend. This measure was announced so that they could get a run in the Sunday papers and so that this minister would have something to talk about on the Sunday program in April last year. This has never been about binge drinking and addressing the very valid concerns that Australians have about binge drinking.

Today, for the first time, the health minister has confessed that she cannot give a commitment that even one young adult has benefited as a result of this particular measure. That is a disgraceful position. There are thousands of Australian parents, thousands of grandparents and thousands of people who have a concern about teenage children—about young adults—who are binge drinking and drinking inappropriately, and they thought that this Prime Minister and this government actually had a genuine concern about that problem. In recognising today for the first time in this place that this is all about raising revenue and not about addressing the very genuine concerns of those Australians, we feel this health minister should stand condemned.

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