Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate on behalf of the government that we will not be supporting Senator Fielding’s amendment—and I do not think that you would be surprised by that, Senator Fielding. It is the view of the government that this measure is reducing the drinking of alcopops. According to Professor Tanya Chikritzhs, it is therefore good common sense that it is having an impact on the inappropriate use of alcohol particularly by young people—and our concern here is its use particularly by those who are under age.

I have been concerned about some of the messages that have come out of this chamber in the last 24 hours. I have been told repeatedly by public health sector leaders that the experience of the past 12 months is that finally in this country there has been a focus on the drug which is causing the second-most serious impact on the health and social fabric of our community. So alcohol is finally being talked about. Many of the public health officials have complimented our Prime Minister on, for the first time in a very long time by a leader, having the leadership and the courage to talk about the impact of alcohol broadly and also, most particularly, on our young people.

Many people in this chamber have talked about their observation of increased abuse of alcohol by very young people and teenagers. This measure is part of our comprehensive approach to having, as Senator Fielding has requested, a change in culture in our society. Senator Siewert has repeatedly talked about the need for a comprehensive approach. I put to Senator Siewert, to Senator Fielding and, more importantly, to those who sit on that side that this government has a comprehensive approach to dealing with the inappropriate use of alcohol and this tax measure is but one element of it. Early in the time of the Rudd Labor government, we established the National Preventative Health Taskforce. One of the issues that it was asked to deal with was the use of alcohol that was detrimental to our society. That was the first plank. We have also allocated, as of last year—and I acknowledge that Senator Xenophon has said it is not enough—$53.5 million to a range of measures under the National Binge Drinking Strategy. That cannot be sneezed at. It is a good piece of work that, along with the other measures, will change the culture around the inappropriate use of alcohol.

We have heard in this chamber of the number of people who are appalled at the culture of young people who say they drink to get drunk. We have to turn that around. That is why the focus of the Binge Drinking Strategy is at a personal level, through early interventions; at a community level, through the community level initiatives and the Good Sports program; and at a national level, where the Prime Minister said we needed to make people aware of what was happening out there on the street at 2.30 in the morning—at a time when many of us who sit in this chamber are not out there. I found those ads very confronting, because I am not on the street at 2.30 in the morning and I do not see it. The message that I heard out of that process was focus group responses from young people who said, ‘Where is the hidden camera?’ They know that that is what it is like out there. We have got to turn that around. So we have the Preventative Health Taskforce and we have the work we are doing through the National Binge Drinking Strategy.

Last week Minister Roxon announced $872 million for a comprehensive range of measures—not only in alcohol, but these things are so intertwined that you cannot separate them. That work is in progress, and $872 million cannot be sneezed at. I think the commitment of this government to tackling that fundamental problem—changing the culture around alcohol, particularly amongst young people—is something that we need to mark. It is not an insignificant commitment. We will receive the report of the Preventative Health Taskforce in June of this year.

The cross-party senators are saying we need to do more. We know we have got to do more, but it needs to happen in an organised and planned way. There have been negotiations and discussions with the crossbench senators, because the Liberal and National parties will not acknowledge that we need to do something about binge drinking in this country.