Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As I articulated in my speech on the second reading of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2010, the Greens do not support these amendments. That probably comes as no surprise, because we did not support them in the House of Representatives either. We believe that an industry representative on the advisory council would be inappropriate and have the potential to undermine the work of the agency. Industry is keen to sell its products and promote its products, and in some cases that is contrary to the outcomes that we are trying to achieve. Not that long ago we were in here debating the alcopops legislation. I sat through two Senate inquiries—one broadly on alcohol and the other on the legislation itself—and there was a massive lobbying exercise to the point where, as one of my staff reminded me today, alcopops were delivered to our Senate suites. I remember telling the Senate how I collected all of those from the Greens senators and made sure we gave them back. We again gave back the alcopops that were delivered on the second day, and on the third day all they left us was the message.