John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Ludwig. Can the minister explain the health impacts of binge drinking and why the government is taking action to combat it?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In terms of binge drinking, this package is a vital step towards improving health outcomes and quality of life, particularly for future generations. Families, communities, police and hospitals have been dealing with this for some time now and the Rudd Labor government has seized the issue and decided to act decisively on this matter. To show the extent of the significant challenge that is before us, some of the statistics are worth providing to the Senate. One in 10 young people aged between 12 and 17 drink at a risky level in any given week. That amounts to about 170,000 people between the ages of 12 and 17. Thirteen per cent of 18- to 20-year-olds drank 13 or more standard drinks each time they visited a club. Of course, the potential flow-on from that impacts not only on the individuals, but also potentially impacts on society. Issues such as car accidents can occur. It can create circumstances where there can be elevated levels of violence in our community, injuries can occur and communities more generally can suffer from troublemakers in this field.

I now turn to the significant impacts upon the health of these individuals. It can amount to alcohol poisoning; it can create a position where people can suffer fits, loss of consciousness. But the more common instances that occur are diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting. Damage to the small bowel, the central nervous system, liver and brain can also occur.

But of course one of the impacts it does have is on our hospital system. There are 72,000 presentations to our hospital system. The immediate consequences of that also cause stress on our hospital systems. To that end, the Rudd Labor government has announced a national binge drinking strategy. The Rudd Labor government has announced the new national strategy to address the binge drinking epidemic among young people. And going to the particular issues themselves, there is a $14.4 million investment in community level initiatives to confront the culture of binge drinking, particularly in sporting organisations.

The area that does need strengthening is in community partnerships. The Rudd government will strengthen the partnerships in the community to deal with this issue more broadly. It is not just simply saying we are going to provide assistance; it is also putting that assistance into the right places. It is designed to support projects such as sporting clubs and non-government organisations working together to educate and inform club members about the harms associated with binge drinking. It can also be stretched to ensure that there is $19.1 million to support innovative and early intervention and diversion programs—an important area to ensure that young people under the age of 18 can also participate in diversion programs. To ensure that the message gets out and to try to change people’s attitudes to this, there is $20 million over two years in an advertising campaign. Of course it does not only take the federal government’s initiative. We need to be able to work with states and territories on other issues—(Time expired)