Here is a great opportunity for Federal and State Governments to show leadership. Health Ministers are much exercised about ‘binge drinking’ in the community, and by young people in particular, but it seems that unhealthy levels of drinking by parliamentarians themselves are just treated as par for the course.
NSW Health Minister, John Della Bosca, wants a ban on alcohol advertising:
The federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, has not ruled out toughening advertising laws in response to Mr Della Bosca’s call, saying there needed to be a “comprehensive response to tackle binge drinking”.
Mr Della Bosca made the announcement after discovering 40,000 drinkers were admitted to NSW hospitals each year with alcohol-related injuries and illnesses. “I’m not pretending this is a new debate,” he said.
Meanwhile, the problems of alcohol consumption in the NSW Parliament seem to be rampant on both sides of politics.
The latest pathetic episode with Andrew Fraser shoving a colleague during a debate on alcohol-related violence, of all things, must be the final straw, surely.
Nevertheless, the efforts of former police minister, Matt Brown, must still take the NSW parliamentary prize this year:
It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know for sure who leaked the story to a Sydney newspaper on September 10, alleging that Kiama MP Matt Brown ”danced semi-naked on a couch and simulated a sex act on (Wollongong MP Noreen Hay) during a drunken party”.
Unfortunately, the bigger issue of ‘drunken parties’ (doubtless aided by taxpayer funded alcohol) in parliament (which is a workplace, after all) got ignored in the wash-up.
Matt Brown wasn’t the first ALP minister to be accused of untoward goings on in the parliamentary building. Current Finance Minister, Joe Tripodi, had to fight off allegations of wrong doing back in 2000.
Of course, the NSW Parliament may still look pale in comparison with the efforts of former WA Liberal Leader, Troy Buswell:
Mr Buswell allegedly grabbed the backbencher in the crotch on the same night he snapped a Labor staffer’s bra during a drunken night at Parliament House last October.
The West Australian Opposition Leader hit the headlines last month after admitting he sniffed a female colleague’s chair after she got up in 2005.
Former NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden resigned in 2005 after his own efforts at a ‘drinks’ event:
A leading Australian politician has resigned after calling an opponent’s Asian-born wife a “mail order bride”.John Brogden stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales state after insulting the wife of former state premier Bob Carr.
“I acted dishonourably and now is the time to act honourably,” he said.
He admitted having had a few drinks to celebrate Mr Carr’s recent departure as state leader before making the comments at a party thrown for the media.
But he denied being drunk at the Australian Hotels Association event three weeks ago, at which he also pinched the bottom of a female journalist and propositioned another.
All these episodes, and the many more we never hear about, have a common thread – alcohol abuse.
For several years, John Della Bosca has said he wants to do something about alcohol in our culture:
The New South Wales Summit on Alcohol Abuse noted the problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption and emphasised the need to work towards a change in the culture of excessive drinking.
The Rudd Government has invested in a national binge drinking strategy:
- $19.1 million to intervene earlier to assist young people and ensure that they assume personal responsibility for their binge drinking;
- Closing the dangerous tax break for alcopops, used to hook young girls on binge-drinking
- $20 million to fund advertising that confronts young people with the costs and consequences of binge drinking.
This must strike young people, and the rest of the community, as being a ‘do as we say, not as we do’ strategy.
It is unlikely anyone will take this ‘culture change’ and the ‘national strategy’ seriously until Roxon and Della Bosca, and other senior politicians, are willing to do something dramatic about the alcohol abuse in our Parliaments that regularly makes such lurid headlines.
Get real guys and declare our Parliaments alcohol-free.
