Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. An article in today’s Australian newspaper states that a report by Macquarie University Professor David Collins on the cost of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug abuse to the Australian community was published yesterday by the federal health department. Professor Collins told the Australian that the alcopops tax would make consumers move straight to spirits, mixing drink themselves, but he said that Australia’s $15.3 billion alcohol toll could be cut in half if the government tried a range of interventions like tackling alcohol advertising. Family First has a plan for alcohol warning labels and a restriction on television advertising until nine o’clock. When will the Rudd government recognise that binge drinking is a cultural problem and work to change that culture using alcohol warning labels coordinated with a television based public health campaign and tougher restrictions on television advertising rather than just raking in tax dollars?