Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

EXCISE TARIFF VALIDATION BILL 2009

The Bill I am introducing today, known as the Excise Tariff Validation Bill 2009, will ensure that all duties of excise demanded or collected before 14 May 2009 because of Excise Tariff Proposal (No.1) 2008 are taken to have been lawfully imposed and lawfully demanded or collected.

This Bill will ensure that revenue collected under the alcopops measure will not be returned as a windfall gain to alcopop producers. It will be retained by the Government to assist in the implementation of our programs to address binge drinking.

A complementary bill, the Customs Tariff Validation Bill 2009, will also be introduced so that all excise equivalent customs duties demanded or collected under the Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 1) 2008 are also taken to be lawfully imposed and lawfully demanded or collected.

This will ensure equivalent treatment for domestically manufactured and imported alcopops.

So let’s be clear —these two bills stop the alcopops revenue collected thus far from going directly to the coffers of the alcopops distillers.or importers.

In addition, the Government will take two further actions.

Firstly, the Government will introduce further Excise and Customs Tariff Proposals, with effect from 14 May 2009, to ensure that revenue is collected for all spirits at the same rate whether they are consumed as alcopops or full strength spirits, for the next 12 months.

In other words, we will make sure the alcopops measure does not cease today.

Second, the Government will in this session of Parliament reintroduce the same bills rejected by the Senate earlier this year to legislate the higher rate for alcopops, and in doing ensure the new rate continues into the future.

That is, we will lock in the higher excise for alcopops into the future.

For the benefit of the Senate, it is worth recapping how we arrived at this point.

Following Gazette notices on 26 April 2008, the Excise Tariff Proposal (No.1) 2008 and Customs Tariff Proposal (No.1) 2008 were tabled on 13 May 2008 to increase the rate of duty applying to ‘other excisable beverages not exceeding 10 per cent by volume of alcohol’ from $39.36 to $66.67 per litre of alcohol content on and from 27 April 2008. These Tariff Proposals also allowed the Australian Taxation Office and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to collect the higher rate of duty on alcopops from

27 April 2008.

However, on 18 March 2009, the Senate chose not to support the bills that would have locked in a higher rate of duty for alcopops.

Under the laws relating to Tariff Proposals, the Australian Taxation Office and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has continued to collect the higher rate of duty on alcopops that has applied since 27 April 2008. This statutory protection expires at midnight Wednesday night.

Once the statutory protection expires, the additional revenue raised from the higher duty rate on alcopops would need to be refunded to alcopops producers or importers.

With the Senate voting down the Government’s attempts to confirm in legislation the increase in the rate applying to alcopops, the introduction and passage of these Validation Bills is considered by the Government to be a necessary measure to protect the collection of duties permitted by the Tariff Proposals.

I’ll say it again in plain English for the benefit of members opposite —these Bills are to stop the revenue collected so far from going to the distillers or importers.

Since the announcement of the original alcopops measure on 26 April 2008, the Government has collected approximately $424 million in revenue.

That’s a $424 million jackpot for the distillers.

We are absolutely committed to pursuing this initiative.

Our commitment to acting to tackle binge drinking has not wavered.

Soon after coming to office the Rudd Government recognised that binge drinking was increasingly becoming a significant health and social issue.

Barely a day goes by without horrible stories of the ill effect of binge drinking in Australia.

One only needs to visit any hospital emergency department on a Saturday night to see the direct, ugly reality of bring drinking.

Let’s not forget a few facts.

The industry itself admits its sales of alcopops grew by 250 per cent since 2000 when the Liberals opened an alcopops loophole by reducing their tariff so that it was lower than other spirits.

Between 2000 and 2004, the percentage of female drinkers aged 15-17 who had consumed alcopops at their last drinking occasion increased from 14 per cent to 62 per cent.

For females drinking at risky and high risk levels in 2004, 78 per cent drank alcopops on their last drinking occasion. That figure has increased threefold since 2000.

In any given week, approximately one in ten 12 to 17 year olds are binge-drinking or drinking at risky levels.

Almost 20,000 girls aged 12-15 drink daily or weekly.

In some jurisdictions the number of young women aged 18-24 being admitted to hospitals because of alcohol has doubled in eight years.

In a year, more than three-quarters of a million Australians are physically abused by persons under the influence of alcohol.

The social cost of alcohol misuse in Australia was estimated to be about $15 billion in 2004-05.

Health experts and police from across Australia agree that action needs to be taken. They know that achieving cultural change does not happen overnight, and that intervention needs to take many forms and many fronts.

This is a long-term issue and which requires sustained long term action.

Experts agree that to effectively tackle binge drinking, we need to have a multi-pronged, and prolonged strategy.

And so, the Rudd Government decided to act —something the previous government never took much interest in.

As a first step, in March 2008 the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing announced the National Binge Drinking Strategy. This involved investing $53.5 million to address binge drinking among young people. Elements of the package include:

• Investing $14.4 million in community level initiatives to confront the culture of binge drinking, particularly in sporting organisations. Six major sporting codes have now signed up to a code of conduct.
• Committing $19.1 million to intervene earlier to assist young people and ensure that they assume personal responsibility for their binge drinking; and
• Funding of $20 million for advertising that confronts young people with the costs and consequences of binge drinking via the gritty and hard hitting Don’t Turn a Night Out into a Nightmare campaign.

By tackling the issue on many fronts we aim to make inroads into behaviour particularly among young Australians. This strategy remains in place and has been made stronger by additional Government intervention.

We believe that the Liberals’ alcopops tax break has played a special role in drinking culture, especially amongst young women.

Alcopops are brazenly targeted directly at young people and underage drinkers. By using bright colours and sweet flavours, alcopops can very effectively fool young people about how much they’re drinking by disguising the taste of alcohol.

Effectively, alcopops are alcohol-laced lolly water targeted to young people, and young women in particular who might not otherwise drink as much, or at all, if the taste of alcohol was more obvious as it would be unpleasant to their young palates.

They are basically designed to undermine any notion of responsible drinking.

I’ve heard of alcopops referred to as cocktails on training wheels.

So following on from the Binge Drinking Strategy, the Government introduced a measure to close the alcopops loophole by again equalising the alcopops tariff with other spirits.

And it worked. The amount of alcopops being drunk has plummeted.

The measure has seen a 35 per cent fall in excise and equivalent customs duty clearances of alcopops between May 2008 and March 2009 when compared to the same period the previous year.

Now the distillers and their puppets in the Liberal Party argue that the decline in consumption of alcopops has been offset by substitution to full strength spirits.

It hasn’t. While there has been some substitution to full strength spirits - partly driven by the marketing strategies of alcopop sellers —overall there has been a fall in total spirits excise and equivalent customs duty clearances of around eight per cent.

The Liberals’ and distillers’ argument does not stand up on the facts.

The measure has worked —I repeat —an eight per cent decline in total spirits excise and equivalent customs duty clearances.

The distillers and their stooges opposite simply can’t argue otherwise.

Distillers are driven purely by making a buck from selling a drink, not by some newfound concern for our children’s health.

Their bottom line, quite literally, is to sell more product.

Only someone who came down in the last shower, or who has ulterior motives, would argue otherwise.

The reality is that on average, as young people who are very sensitive to price, are consuming less alcopops and less spirits, which while resulting in social good, is bad for profits.

There have been a range of other self-serving reports and surveys commissioned in desperation by the distillers, but the fact of the matter is this: fewer alcopops in particular and spirits in general are being consumed as a result of this measure, and they will go to any lengths to stop this.

I referred earlier to the need for a comprehensive package of measures, and that more action is in the pipeline, and I’d like to briefly outline some of these now.

At COAG last year the Rudd Government announced the single largest investment ever made by any Australian Government in preventative health, to support a range of programs and interventions to reduce the impact of chronic illness on the community - $872 million worth. Part of this will be directed to reducing the ill-effects of alcohol abuse, along with the harm caused by tobacco, obesity and other chronic illness.

All of this is new money and is partly supported by the revenue from closing the alcopops loophole.

And importantly, the Government has established the Preventative Health Taskforce chaired by Professor Rob Moodie. The Taskforce will focus on the priority areas of alcohol, tobacco and obesity, and I expect its report in the coming months. I know that the Taskforce’s report will have strong recommendations based on evidence on further action to reduce the effects of binge drinking, and I look forward very much to receiving them.

So the point I have demonstrated is that this is not a stand alone answer to binge drinking, and was never meant to be, as the Liberals have so disingenuously claimed.

The alcopops measure is just one part —an important part —of the Government’s comprehensive approach to tackling binge-drinking.

It is not the first initiative we have taken.

Nor will it be the last.

We will continue to engage in a conversation with the Australian community on how best to address the scourge of binge drinking.

It is now also time for the Liberal Party to show their hand … and choose a side.

Full details of the Excise Tariff Validation Bill 2009 are contained in the Explanatory Memorandum.

I commend the bill to the Senate.

CUSTOMS TARIFF VALIDATION BILL 2009

The Customs Tariff Validation Bill I am now introducing will ensure that all excise equivalent customs duties demanded or collected before 14 May 2009 because of Customs Tariff Proposal (No.1) 2008 are taken to have been lawfully imposed and lawfully demanded or collected.

This Bill is cognate with amendments contained in the Excise Tariff Validation Bill and ensures equivalent treatment for domestically manufactured and imported alcopops.

Validation of the collection of excise equivalent customs duties, before 14 May 2009, under the Government’s alcopop measures will mean that importers of these products will not receive a windfall gain and that the Government will continue to deliver its current programmes tackling binge drinking.

Full details of the Customs Tariff Validation Bill 2009 are contained in the joint Explanatory Memorandum for the Customs and Excise Tariff Validation Bills.

I commend the bill to the Senate.

Debate (on motion by Senator Stephens) adjourned.