Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

In summary, the Democrats support the intent of the approach here. I take the opportunity to repeat our longstanding views that reform of taxation related to alcohol is part and parcel of a more consistent solution particularly for the side of the issue that deals with pricing. It certainly has an impact.

It is interesting to compare the approach in the measures being taken in the Northern Territory with regard to alcohol restrictions for Aboriginal communities with what is being done in other parts of Australia. As is readily acknowledged, there are various other types of alcohol restrictions in place in Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, for example, and certainly in my own state of Queensland in a number of DOGIT communities—deed of grant in trust communities—mostly in the northern part of the state. Within each of those communities varying models have been put in place with different restrictions. In some communities very, very limited amounts of alcohol are allowed at all. In others it is restricted to consumption of alcohol in a particular place—the canteen, as it usually called—without anyone being able to have takeaways. In other communities it is restricted to the certain types of alcohol. In one community that springs to mind all that is allowed is mid-strength beer. No full-strength beer and no spirits are allowed in the community at all.

Those things depend on the community, in some cases anyway, having a say in deciding how the restrictions will work. It depends on the proximity of the community to the nearest alcohol outlet. If it is a long way from the nearest outlet, as is the case with the communities of the cape, then it is much easier to enforce. If there is only one road in and there is no alcohol outlet in the community and the nearest one is a fair hike away and you cannot get across to it in the wet season, then that makes it a lot easier to enforce alcohol restrictions than if the community is on the open highway and there is a pub 20 minutes up the road outside the community. So you have different circumstances and different responses for different areas.

Looking a little more closely at the model that is put forward in this legislation of a $100 purchase limit, I would have to say that that is quite generous—if I could use that word—compared with some of the communities in Northern Queensland that would have tighter restrictions on bringing that level of alcohol into the community. I appreciate that this $100 limit is not the be-all and end-all of the restrictions that the government is putting in place in the Territory. I am simply taking the opportunity to make the contrast and to emphasise the point, which is that there is no one single approach with some magic aspect attached to it, whether it is the nature of the alcohol that can be bought, the amount that can be bought in volume or in price.

There is no doubt that pricing is a key component, particularly in the lower price, high-alcohol content end of the market. If you are specifically purchasing alcohol for the purpose of wiping yourself out, then quality is not foremost in your mind and availability and cheapness are key factors, as they are of course with any substance where that type of consequence is the intent of consumption. I make that point also to emphasise the obvious point that it is not just about alcohol that we have to be wary with regard to substance abuse, particularly over time. That is one of the challenges that will need to be faced, and it already has been attempted to be faced of course, both in the Territory and elsewhere.

When you put restrictions on alcohol, people divert to other substances. As I said in the previous debate on this, that has meant other challenges with regard to petrol sniffing and other sorts of substance abuse. Those challenges have been addressed with varying levels of success in recent times, and those challenges will continue, and I have no doubt that federal and Territory governments and the community more widely will continue to seek to address those challenges. But the issue of pricing is a key part of it and that is something that would be addressed by this amendment in a positive way.

Another key part which I want to take the opportunity to re-emphasise concerns the support of the community, particularly in the longer term. Whether you are talking about working with and constraining substance abuse with regard to alcohol or any other type of substance at all, particularly legal substances, then community support is crucial. That is an area where we really need to focus our continuing attention on what happens in the Territory, to make sure that community support is monitored and is built wherever possible. If support is lost and support builds for other approaches, we need to ensure that there is a willingness to move down that path.