Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Carol Brown for her supplementary question. The community has been very supportive of our health reform aims but, in the process, we seem to meet nothing but obstruction from the extreme opposition, particularly in the Senate. For example, the problem of teenage drinking has been widely discussed, yet the opposition initially failed to support the government’s bill that would have attacked the problem of teen consumption of alcopops. There is also broad community support—for example, behind the recommendations of the Preventative Health Taskforce—yet the opposition has blocked the establishment of the national preventative health agency, a key reform to address the burden of chronic disease currently caused by obesity, tobacco and excessive consumption of alcohol. Reports such as this should be guiding the reform of a health system that is becoming unsustainable after 12 long years of neglect and inaction by the Howard government. (Time expired)