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

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Ludwig. Last month a paper was published in the medical journal the Lancet by Australia’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre which said that the federal government’s alcopops tax is not likely to cut binge drinking. The paper says that, under the tax:

… overall rates of usual or binge consumption in Australia are unlikely to substantially fall, because spirits hold a smaller market share than beer, and young people will more than likely switch their preference.

Isn’t the Rudd government just trying to divert attention from the alcohol toll by making Australia’s binge-drinking problem a tax problem?