Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Picture, if you will, an ordinary Saturday evening. It is late and you are fast asleep, blissfully unaware of your surroundings—that is, until you are suddenly woken by the sound of smashing glass and what sounds like a brawl going on outside your bedroom door. You spring out of bed, hurriedly throw on some outer clothing and go to investigate. What greets you as you open your front door beggars belief: over 200 youths milling in the street—most intoxicated, some throwing bottles and cans, others trespassing on neighbouring properties, and all causing a disturbance.

This is not a work of fiction by Hollywood producers; rather, it was the scene that confronted the residents of Tettenhall Ridge in the Geelong suburb of Belmont on Saturday, 31 August, some two weeks ago. It was the end result of a teenage party gone wrong, one which had been widely advertised through internet services such as MySpace and MSN chat, and fuelled by excessive underage drinking, and a crowd too large to control had ultimately spiralled out of control. Sadly, not even a police presence was sufficient to quell the crowd. When officers arrived, some were set upon; one female officer narrowly avoided being king hit, and bottles thrown from amidst the mob damaged police vehicles.

This type of appalling behaviour is not confined to Belmont or Geelong. It is a regular occurrence throughout many towns and cities across our nation that, by virtue of its seeming regularity, casts a damning blight upon our shared sense of community and our social values. It is because of a desire to end scenes such as these that the Rudd government will invest over $50 million to curb what is a binge-drinking epidemic among many young people. Included in this funding is $19.1 million for early intervention programs to assist alcohol-affected youths. Furthermore, the federal government has also committed $300,000 to Geelong under the Safer Suburbs Plan—money which has been appropriated to the City of Greater Geelong and is to be used in safety initiatives aimed at reducing crime and antisocial behaviour.

In Geelong these funding initiatives have been complemented by community action, with over 3,000 local residents, celebrities and businesses supporting the Geelong Advertiser’s ‘Just Think’ campaign. The ‘Just Think’ campaign is a local response to a recent spate of abhorrent and often tragic acts of alcohol-fuelled violence that have occurred in Geelong, and, as the name suggests, the campaign message is simple: just think. Think about the potential effect your alcohol consumption may have on your decision-making abilities and levels of self-control. Think about what your drinking does to your friends, your family, your community and your health. Think about your drinking. Indicative of the success of the Geelong Advertiser’s ‘Just Think’ campaign has been the praise and support it has received from Victorian Premier John Brumby and Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon. Furthermore, it is now being used as the model for the program being run by the Cairns Post to curtail alcohol-fuelled violence in that city.

Teenage drunkenness, binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence are national problems, and I would encourage all Australians to heed the words of the Geelong Advertiser’s campaign and just think about the effect alcohol has upon their lives.

Finally, I would like to thank Sumeyra Eren, a work experience student from Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College, for preparing this speech.