Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Ageing and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Given the Prime Minister’s commitment to open government and evidence based policy, not driven by ideology, will he provide the House with all departmental modelling and advice on the impact of his government’s changes to the new tax rates on ready-to-drink alcohol?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. Here is some evidence for you. The 2005 Australian Secondary Students Alcohol and Drug Survey noted that, by the age of 14, around 86 per cent of students had tried alcohol; by the age of 17, around 70 per cent of students had consumed alcohol in the month prior to the survey; in any given week, approximately one in 10, which equates to about 168,000, 12- to 17-year-olds reported binge drinking or drinking at risky levels, defined by the NHMRC as seven or more drinks for males and five or more for females; and, for 16- and 17-year-olds in any given week, one in five drank at risky levels. Rather than reduce the excise on these drinks, as those opposite did, we have decided to act responsibly.

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I am interested in that answer. Are those figures going down?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition knows that that is no point of order.