Page 3281 - Week 11 - Thursday, 12 September 1991
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Mr Jensen: Terry said that there was not a problem. Now there is a problem.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Jensen, you are continually interjecting today. Please desist.
MRS GRASSBY: Mr Jensen, do you know what you remind me of? You remind me of the fellow who sits in the bar and looks at the ugly woman and says, "I am going to keep on drinking here until you look good". I will tell you what, I reckon I need to keep on drinking here to put up with you. That is what I need, to put up with you, Mr Jensen.
Bringing in a pub card is one of the best ideas, and, as we have already heard, the Minister intends to do this. Educating people is another idea. In many schools in America now there is education on drinking, to stop people going out and binge drinking. But bringing in some of the ideas that the Opposition wants to bring in is not the way to fix the problem. I am always fascinated at how lawyers love inquiries, because they love bits of papers around; it makes them feel secure. The more bits of paper they have around, the more secure they feel. That is not the way to fix the problem. I am sorry, Mr Connolly; do you have lots of paper there?
Mr Connolly: Yes, paper everywhere; I am feeling okay.
MRS GRASSBY: Education is the right approach to the problem - teaching people about the situation with drinking. One of the things that we should be doing is teaching those who serve alcohol to serve more food. This is the way. When you eat in any of the outlets in Europe or anywhere else, you are served food. You cannot drink without food. We do not have any of that here in Australia. And, as for restricting the hours in which people can drink, we can all remember the 6 o'clock swill. My God, that was the way to get drunk - saying that the doors were going to close at 6 o'clock. So, from half past 5 to 6 o'clock they drank twice as much as they normally would.
The nicest thing about living in Canberra, I have always felt, is the fact that you could have a drink at any time if you wanted it, and that most of the drinking areas, for those who wanted to drink, were around residential areas. The one thing that people love about Paddington is that there are 13 pubs within a large residential area, and they all have restaurants attached to them. The only thing is, of course, that most of them close at 11 o'clock. The point is that here in Canberra people can drink at any time, if they want to; that they do not close at 11 o'clock, they do not close at midnight and they do not close at 4 o'clock in the morning. So, the people do not have to binge drink or rush in and drink when the hotels are open.
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