Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I totally agree with the member for Grey. I commend him for his comments, and I refer him to the Hansard; I have spoken on this several times since 1998. I have had children going through exactly the same situation. Only this year, in his fifth year of university, my son qualified for what he called the ‘Kevin Rudd’. I totally agree with you. I will do everything I can to do it. But, quite frankly, I wish the mob on your side had done something about it over the last 12 years.

Today the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned in question time the Salvation Army’s research on alcohol awareness which was released today. I would like to refer to that tonight, because what I have to offer you is a survey on binge drinking that I carried out in my electorate. I gave a promise that I would bring the results of this survey, warts and all, to the parliament, and I will do that. First of all, what is binge drinking? Binge drinking, according to the Salvation Army report, is also known as ‘getting smashed’ or ‘off your face’ and can be defined in two ways: firstly, as having six or more drinks in a row; and, secondly, as drinking large amounts every now and then and losing control. There are two kinds of binge drinking according to the report: drinking a lot over a few hours or drinking over several days or weeks. The second type is more harmful to the body and is often a repeated behaviour. Binge drinking can lead to death, permanent brain damage, alcohol poisoning, violence, sexual assault, and road and other accidents, such as drowning. Although binge drinking affects people of all ages, studies clearly indicate that binge drinking is on the increase amongst young people, with one in six young people having more than 20 drinks a day at least once a month. I refer you to the report. Have a look at it. You can get it on the web.

I did a survey of 5,500 young people aged 18 to 25 in my electorate. I got 405 that actually responded to me in writing, which was terrific. I would like to share with you some of the results. The majority—that is, 75 per cent—agreed that binge drinking is a problem for young Australians,  yet the majority also agreed that the binge-drinking problem is not worse now than it was in the past. How do they know? I do not know. Anyway, that is what they said. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents told us they were well educated during high school about the risks associated with alcohol consumption. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they definitely do not feel pressured to binge drink when they are out with their friends. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents believed they were well educated by their parents about the risks associated with alcohol consumption. Almost one-quarter of the respondents had no opinion on whether the Rudd government was or was not doing a good job of tackling binge drinking. Sixty-four per cent thought we were not doing a good job at all—fair enough. I asked the question; I got the result. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents did not consider themselves to be binge drinkers. Only 16 per cent considered themselves binge drinkers, yet 45 per cent of respondents admitted to drinking alcohol most weekends—let’s keep in mind the definition of binge drinking in the Salvation Army report, which was done through the survey by the Roy Morgan Research.

Forty-five per cent of my respondents reported drinking between two and five drinks each sitting, whilst 10 per cent reported consuming more than 10 drinks per sitting. That is a lot of drinks. The most popular drink amongst those surveyed was vodka—I am not doing an advertisement; I am just giving you the results. Thirty per cent reported this as their preferred drink, with beer at 29 per cent and alcopops at 23 per cent. That is considerable. The majority of respondents said a stronger education campaign in schools is the best way to tackle binge drinking. Many respondents said this campaign needed to start from primary school and be teamed with graphic advertising in the media—I like the ads that are running at the moment—like those used with the anti-smoking campaigns. Twenty-five per cent of respondents believed lifting the alcopop tax was ineffective, while a further 12.9 per cent believed it could not be stopped anyway.

I am not surprised by those results. The respondents were very open and honest with me in their responses and I am going to make sure that the Minister for Health and Ageing receives a copy of this. I hope that it can be used to enlighten young people, older people and people in the industry about some of the thoughts of young people in my electorate with regard to binge drinking, particularly in terms of the alcopop tax.

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

Order! It being 8 pm, the debate is interrupted.