Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will be supporting this motion. I think our position is similar to the Democrats’ in that we think the terms of reference should be more focused on the overall issue of alcohol and the impact of alcohol on the community and what we should be doing to address it. I think the most important term of reference here is (j). It should be noted that the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs is already looking at an issue around alcohol in the bill that Senator Fielding tabled and had referred to the committee and which relates to some controls on advertising. Already the evidence to that committee is showing that one simple measure does not work, that you need a package of measures to address the serious issues. The evidence to date, again, highlights the serious issue of alcohol abuse and its impact on our community, and that it is not just about young people; it is across all age groups. A range of packages are needed.

A number of groups have tabled evidence that looks at the measures that are effective. Alcohol pricing is one of those key measures. In fact, it is top of the list based on the impact alcohol pricing has on drinking behaviour. But it is very important to note that everybody says, ‘You have to have a package of measures; just one measure does not work.’ So pricing of alcohol is important, alcohol accessibility is very important, the number of hours that alcohol is sold is important, the number of outlets where alcohol is sold is important and social marketing is very important—and that includes advertising. The Greens’ position, which we articulated during the election, is that alcohol advertising should be banned. Alcohol sponsorship, of sport, for example, we also think should be banned. There are a range of measures that we believe need to be looked at.

We the Greens have not made up our minds on this actual tax. We think it is very important that we look at it as part of a range of measures. We do not think that just because we whack a tax on one particular alcohol product we will fix the issue and can walk away thinking, ‘Haven’t we done a very good job.’ We need to be taking this very seriously. There are a number of issues that the opposition are now raising in opposition that they could have been addressing when they were in government. I will not bore the chamber at the moment by going through the issues on the list that we have been dealing with, but this is yet another one.

I am also deeply concerned about the time frame for the reporting of this committee, because this issue is so serious and there are so many issues around it. Tuesday 24 June is the date the committee will be reporting. That is a very tight time line. However, I also appreciate that this is related to a budget measure and that is why the time line is so tight.

We will be supporting this measure. I think that, as I said, we need to be looking at it as part of a holistic approach. I hope that the opposition will support an approach that looks at the myriad issues that are involved and also includes the vital issue of advertising, because that is a key part of any measure if we are going to seriously address this issue.

There is a lot of information available that looks at the impact of alcohol in our community. Some information from the New South Wales Parliamentary Library, for example, shows that 47 per cent of assaults are related to alcohol abuse; 37 per cent of all road injuries involving males are related to alcohol; 16 per cent of child abuse, 12 per cent of male suicides, eight per cent of female suicides and 44 per cent of injuries resulting from a fire are related to alcohol; 34 per cent of drowning deaths and 34 per cent of injuries sustained as a result of a fall are caused by alcohol. That does not go into how many hospitalisations et cetera there are as a result of abuse of alcohol. So it is a very wide community problem. I do not think the committee will deal with this in the very short time that it has available, and so I am worried that the committee will not be able to do an effective job to address this issue in the complexity that is needed. The Greens will be contributing to this committee. We will take part and we do support the motion, with those reservations.