Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Will the minister provide information on any new research about binge drinking and the opinions of experts in the field?

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

I thank the member for Hindmarsh for his question. I am pleased to be able to take this opportunity to address some of the latest information that has been released about the consumption and sale of products that have been the focus of our binge drinking initiatives in the past. This morning and last night, the alcohol industry distributed to media outlets some recent figures on the sale of spirits. I would like to take the House through those figures, because the figures in the newspapers this morning and in the press release that was released today show that the sale of alcopops has now dropped by almost 40 per cent—a measure that the government is very pleased about.

Forty per cent is quite a big decrease on its own, but when you look at the limited amount of data that has been released, what you will find is that in the latest week the most recent figures, from 11 May, actually show a 50 per cent drop. This is a staggering drop in the alcopops industry and something that we believe the distillers have deliberately understated.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Baldwin interjecting

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

Order! The member for Paterson!

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

It is a positive sign that sales of these products, which are designed to attract young people, to seduce them into a drinking habit, have dropped.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

We have the members opposite begging us to address what has been the increase in the sales of some other products, so let me take those interjections since the members opposite are so keen. What this data has revealed, by the industry’s own admission, is that there has been an increase in the sale of a number of other products—a 20 per cent increase in the sale of hipflasks of full-strength spirits and a 21 per cent increase in the 700 ml bottles of full-strength spirits.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Baldwin interjecting

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

Order! The member for Paterson will cease interjecting!

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

That is a very good question that the member for Paterson asked: how many does that equate to? What it equates to, by the industry’s own admission, is an overall decline, when you look at the decrease and the increase, of 100 million—sorry, one million—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

We are only talking about two weeks. One million standard drinks of spirits fewer have been sold in a two-week period. I challenge the members opposite, whatever mathematical skills they have, to tell me that a decrease of one million sales of products is not a good reduction.

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

Dr Nelson interjecting

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

It is interesting that the Leader of the Opposition just interjected across the table that he wrote the book on this. I tell you what, I hope young people are not reading the book that you wrote, Leader of the Opposition, because what it would show in this debate is that we have the industry—

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Baldwin interjecting

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

I warn the member for Paterson!

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

with a clear self-interest aligned with the opposition, and we have every other health expert in the country aligned with the government saying that this is a measure which is positive. I will take the House through some of those health professionals: Dr John Herron, a former Liberal senator, now at the Australian National Council on Drugs; David Templeman, the CEO of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia; John Rogerson of the Australian Drug Foundation; Mike Daube from the Public Health Association; and Daryl Smeaton from the Alcohol, Education and Rehabilitation Foundation. But perhaps what will be of most interest to members opposite is that I came across a quote the other day which was given in March by the President of the AMA, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, who gave a very vivid description of the urgency that the problem of alcopops presents to us. Let me read you the quote:

Alco-pops are a specific issue within the binge-drinking problem.

Here you have drinks that are about affordable prices and pretty colours, particularly targeted at young girls - and we’re talking about 12, 13, 14, 15-year-olds.

We have to look at the alcohol industry and how it targets young people with alco-pops. It builds brand loyalty and the kids connect with a type of drink - they’re hooked in.

Then they go off and have an accident, or they’re king hit while waiting in a queue outside a tavern, or they’re raped or are having unprotected sex.

That was from Dr Capolingua, who is not known for necessarily coming out and supporting the position of the government. She is the president of the AMA, a position that the Leader of the Opposition has held himself and apparently wrote the book on. What I am worried about is whether he wrote the book in the week that he supported this measure or in the week that he opposed this measure, because we do not know where the Leader of the Opposition stands on this. But this debate is becoming very clear. You have the health experts and the Rudd government on one side; you have the industry and the opposition on the other side. And there may be a little bit of deja vu in this debate, because it is very like the debate on fuel, where you have the opposition siding with industry and the Rudd government siding with the experts and the consumers. We are interested in protecting young people, and one million standard drinks fewer that have been consumed in the last two weeks is good news.