Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Franklin for her question. Last week a report was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health and it showed that the number of young women hospitalised after binge drinking has more than doubled in less than a decade. Between 1998 and 2006 the number of young women aged between 18 and 24 hospitalised for alcohol abuse rose from six per 10,000 people to more than 14.6 per 10,000 people—more than doubling the numbers of people who are hospitalised. One of the report’s authors, Michael Livingston, said that three separate studies cited in the research indicated a clear increasing trend in alcohol related harm amongst young people and that these trends are deeply concerning. The emergency room data showed that between 2000 and 2006 there were rapid increases in alcohol presentation rates in people aged between 16 and 24. Their symptoms when they presented at emergency departments included alcohol dependence, mental and behavioural disorder due to alcohol, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic gastritis and alcoholic liver cirrhosis. These figures were based on Victorian figures, but Victoria is not alone. In New South Wales, for example, alcohol related assaults have doubled to more than 20,000 in the last decade. Ask parents of teenagers and young adults what they fear most on a Friday and Saturday night and they will tell you that it is whether their young kids are going to come home safe.

Michael Moore, head of the Public Health Association, which publishes the Journal of Public Health, said:

Blind Freddy can see there is harmful use amongst teenagers, particularly amongst young women, and it really requires government to take decisive action.

While it might be that blind Freddy can see that, it seems that blind Tony cannot. On the weekend, the member for Warringah said that there was not really a problem. And then this morning the Leader of the Opposition had his own scientific advice for the community. And with the evidence based precision that we have come to expect from the Leader of the Opposition, he defined binge drinking as ‘really getting stuck into it in a big way’. Thank you very much for that scientific evidence coming from the Leader of the Opposition. In contrast to the Leader of the Opposition’s scientific approach, the government is going to await the final report from the National Health and Medical Research Council, when medical experts will announce their new guidelines for alcohol and the level of consumption that puts people at risk. This is a regular occurrence and, as the Prime Minister has already mentioned, the result of a review process that was commenced under the Liberal government.

I would like to remind the House that these are guidelines drawn up by medical experts in an independent process with no input from government, as they should be. They aim to provide the community with information about what constitutes a safe level of drinking. They are not laws, they are not rules and they are not government mandated standards of behaviour; they are medical guidelines for how to stay out of harm’s way. This side of the House believes that while drinking safely is ultimately the responsibility of individuals, it is important that everybody in the community is well-informed about the health risks and has access to the best medical advice. This medical advice is based on up-to-date scientific evidence. For example, I understand that the new guidelines will have recommendations for children, adolescents, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. This will not be based on the flippant comments of an irresponsible leader who simply says that alcohol is only harmful if you are really getting stuck into it in a big way. Our young people are turning up in hospitals as a result of alcohol abuse, they are hurting each other under the influence of alcohol, they are driving home drunk and they are causing themselves long-term harm. We are determined to side with parents and police commissioners to do something to help tackle this problem. We will not just side with the spirits industry to paper over this problem, which is costing the community $15 billion every year. We see from the weekend that the industry are now channelling their money into running ads for the Liberal Party in Gippsland. Once again, in this debate, you have health experts lining up with the Rudd government to help parents and police. On the other side, you have the distillers and the Liberal Party. You choose!

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