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

I thank the member for Kingston for her question, because I know that she has been following closely the action the government has been taking to tackle binge drinking. Of course, the government has taken a number of decisive and concrete steps in tackling binge drinking, including encouraging Australians to lead a healthier lifestyle, and an important part of that strategy is closing the alcopops tax loophole.

After 12 months of irresponsible and opportunistic obstruction, I did hold out just a glimmer of hope that maybe today the Liberal Party would finally come to a decision on whether it was going to support this alcopops measure or not. I thought that the party room might have been dealing with this issue. Obviously there has been a lot of speculation from the frontbench and from the leader, and I thought that there might have even been a gradual awakening from the Leader of the Opposition that, if 80 per cent of Australians think that binge drinking is a problem, maybe he should not be the last man standing opposing the measures that we are taking to tackle alcohol abuse. But, unfortunately, today the Liberal Party failed again to finally take a position.

See this speech in context