Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, recently the Alcohol's burden of disease report found that alcohol kills 15 Australians and hospitalises 430 ever day. But Canberra continues to pass the buck to the states, even though the costs of Australia's drinking culture have been so big for so long. Minister, will you hold a national summit involving key health professionals and elected representatives to devise a strategy similar to that for tobacco in order to address this serious problem?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Denison for his question. He raises a very serious issue not only for our country but also for other developed nations around the world. People can consume alcohol responsibly, but some people have drinking patterns which are clearly bad for their health.

The promise that governments should provide to the public is that we will help to educate people and give guidelines, particularly to young people who may be under incredible peer group pressure, about consumption patterns—as you point out, Member for Denison, not just in relation to alcohol but also in relation to tobacco and other illicit drug use. There are very important messages for both the state and federal governments to deliver in this area. For instance, in this last budget we provided $19 million worth of funding to the Good Sports program through which we will reach about 1.7 million Australians to talk about how we can change some consumption behaviours in relation to alcohol within sporting venues—and hopefully that message will then infiltrate its way more broadly into the Australian community.

I might say that this government is more about tangible outcomes as opposed to summits and creating new bureaucratic structures—which was the want of the Labor Party. But there is an important point to make in relation to the premise of your question, Member for Denison, and that is in terms of the buck-passing between the states and the Commonwealth. This is an important issue, because clearly there is a division of responsibility between the states and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth, for arguments sake, can do nothing in relation to opening hours. We are seeing some evidence now out of New South Wales and other jurisdictions of trials that have been conducted have provided some promise. I know that Professor Owler, from the AMA, is very concerned as a physician and as somebody who has led the New South Wales advertising campaign about consumption patterns and about ways in which we can reduce presentations to tertiary hospitals. It is very important work that he has done and it is very important work that has been conducted in New South Wales, Queensland and elsewhere.

We are very keen to work constructively—not to pass the buck—with the state and territory governments, and we will embark on that work. But we will do it in a sensible and tangible way. The AMA is proposing a summit in October this year, and I believe very strongly that the summit should concentrate not only on alcohol but also on the use of steroids, particularly amongst some young men, and the ingestion of some other illicit drugs which play a very important part in the behaviour conducted by some of those people on a Friday night.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. I am not trying to cause problems here, but I know that the community would be keen to know whether the government would consider a summit.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. The minister was most pertinent to the question and he has completed his answer.