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

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. His community, particularly in Cairns, has been taking very active action in tackling alcohol abuse in the community, including the Just Think campaign. Of course as a national government we are determined to tackle the problems that exist in our community associated with alcohol abuse. Interestingly, figures that were released yesterday by the Salvation Army, based on a Roy Morgan poll which they had organised, found that more than one Australian in every eight have experience of children in their family being frightened or embarrassed by relatives’ drinking habits. It goes up to one in five Australians who know of verbal arguments or threats within their family due to alcohol, and sadly for 11 per cent those confrontations have been physical.

Members would be aware that there are plenty of other shocking statistics that show trends that we must be worried about in this parliament. On alcohol consumption in any given week, approximately one in 10 12- to 17-year-olds is binge drinking or drinking at a risky level. Binge drinking leads to violence. Last year more than three-quarters of a million Australians were physically abused by persons under the influence of alcohol. Members would be aware that on this side of the House we have acted to close the tax loophole created by those opposite on alcopops. We have also announced that $53 million is being targeted to an immediate binge drinking strategy. As yet we have not had any indication from those opposite about whether they support our binge drinking strategy.

Members would also be aware that at the end of June the Rudd government opened applications for community groups to apply for funds to develop effective and sustainable partnerships to combat binge drinking. We believe governments have a role to play and we believe communities have a role to play. We would like the Liberal Party to tell us whether they are going to support these sorts of community level initiatives. A sum of $7.2 million has been made available for these community level initiatives for organisations such as sporting clubs, youth groups, church organisations and others. It is possible to obtain up to $150,000 for individual groups or $250,000 for groups in partnerships, who are able to bid for this money for innovative projects aimed at preventing or reducing binge drinking, particularly for young people. People might be interested to know in this House that 293 organisations have applied for funding at the time that applications closed.

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