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

The shadow minister can rant and rave as much as he likes. He can yell out. He can try to yell over the top of me. It will not disprove the evidence that shows that sales have decreased by a third. That is the evidence that is important. It is clear. It is much more successful than it was ever predicted to be by the government. We are happy about that, but we are going to make sure that we pursue this measure.

What I have to say to the shadow minister, who was part of a government which did absolutely nothing about this issue, is that the money is not his to allocate. He is not the government. He is also, as it turns out, not even a participant in this debate. He does not want to support this measure and talk with us about how the money might be spent. The opposition have refused from day one to be part of this solution. They cannot pretend otherwise, and the words that the shadow minister used reveal it all: ‘We will be able to provide $300 million for education and rehabilitation programs,’ because, somehow or other, the distillers—which I admit the opposition have been close to in this debate—are going to hand it over to the shadow minister to distribute to whichever health and education fund he thinks is worthwhile. Shadow Minister, that is not what is going to happen. What is going to happen if this bill is defeated is that $300-odd million will go back into the pockets of distillers, who will no doubt use it to advertise their products to more young people. The Liberal Party will be responsible for that happening, and that is what will be on their head.

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