Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to begin by congratulating Senator Leyonhjelm. I had the opportunity to be the deputy chair for this Senate Select Committee on Red Tape inquiry. I have spent the past few years of my time in the Senate participating in inquiries with Senator Leyonhjelm. We have at times dealt with alleged football hooligans and become experts in the use of flares. We spent a day in Newtown. It was falsely sold to me by Senator Leyonhjelm, who said, 'Let's spend the day on marijuana.' It turned out to be an inquiry about law reform. More recently there has been this inquiry on the sale and distribution of alcohol. I know Senator Leyonhjelm is searching for an alleged football hooligan who uses marijuana and likes to drink some alcohol—that I believe would be his ultimate voter!

Joking aside, on a serious note I encourage people to take a little bit of time to read this report. It shows just how ridiculously complex the taxation system has become when it comes to the sale and distribution of alcohol. Obviously this is not an easy problem to fix. Let us not kid ourselves. There is the politics around the WET, the politics around the beer industry and the politics around the spirit industry. If anyone were to design from scratch a taxation system around alcohol, the idea that you would have a different structure for a standard drink of wine compared to a standard drink of beer and a vodka and rum, a vodka and beer or whatever—