Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House
3:36 pm
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House
Yes.
Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House
In question time today the Minister for Health and Ageing claimed that effectively I was going soft on binge drinking and she referred to yesterday’s Insiders program. I am happy to table the full transcript of the program, but I in fact said:
It turned out in the budget papers it is a $3.1 billion tax grab and even his own people—
meaning the Prime Minister—
have been saying that this is not about tax equalisation ... Now what we are starting to get evidence of is that young people are turning to hip flasks—
Nicola Roxon Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing
What about the rest of it, Joe?
Harry Jenkins Speaker
Order! Is the member seeking leave to table a document?
Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House
I will be, but I am entitled to finish the quote.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
The member must go to where he has been misrepresented and correct the record.
Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House
I am doing that. The minister said that I was going soft on binge drinking. The minister specifically referred to the Insiders program, on which I was interviewed for perhaps 10 minutes about this issue, and I am specifically referring to the matter at hand. I went on to say:
The fact of the matter is two thirds of the drinks affected by the alcopop tax are in fact black spirits such as Bundy and different forms of rum. Most of them drunk by men over the age of 25. So this is not about attacking teenage binge drinking, this is about tax revenue …
I seek leave to table the whole transcript.
Leave not granted.