Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to make a contribution to the debate on this report and acknowledge those who have made submissions. I think the work that people and organisations put into their reports and their submissions to the committee was quite significant. They perhaps did have the benefit of having another inquiry a few weeks earlier, which did assist with the research, but, regardless of that, a lot of good work was put into submissions and evidence presented. To the secretariat I note that, as Senator Moore said, it was a very tight time frame. I will note that the government could have had some influence over that, but we did not know what their tactics were going to be at the time with respect to the presentation of the legislation, so there lies the basis of that.

I would also like to acknowledge my colleagues on the committee for the way the hearings were conducted and the interactions that were part of that. I think we all came out of this with pretty strong agreement that, if we are going to address the issue of alcohol misuse—and I stay away from terms like ‘binge drinking’, as Senator Moore has said—then we do need a comprehensive approach. I think that is where the government has failed with this particular measure, which is so narrowly focused that it is not going to, on its own, address any of the alcohol issues that we have. In fact, the evidence is that it will probably lead to some substitutions. There is some initial evidence from the industry that people are moving away from RTDs towards pure spirits and mixers. Although that is very early evidence, and the industry was very cautious in the way it presented that evidence, I think we need to acknowledge that.

There was also the anecdotal evidence. I spent Saturday night talking to a fairly large group of young people—I know that other members of the committee have similar interactions—and they know what is going on; they are not silly. If they want to go out and consume large quantities of alcohol, they know how to do it and they have the resources to do it. I think that is one of the issues that this measure, on its own, does not actually address. It is quite unfortunate that we are in a position to be debating what is one element, and a very narrowly based element, of this whole issue, an issue which every member of the committee acknowledges. I will take Senator Murray’s point: I do not think there is a senator in this place who does not acknowledge that there are problems that we need to address with respect to alcohol use. But the very narrow focus of this measure on its own really does not address the problem. The concerns that were raised during—