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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2265 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

Some people have the very strange attitude, which I do not understand, that it is much better to get drunk publicly than to get drunk privately. I do not believe that I have ever been drunk in my life. I have had a few beers or a few glasses of wine from time to time. But I can tell you that, if I were likely to get drunk, I would want to go away somewhere quietly, where my foolishness would not be observed and nobody would know about it.

Mr Humphries: Why break the habit of a lifetime, Bill?

MR WOOD: I do not propose to break that habit, Mr Humphries.

Mr Humphries: You talk about being foolish in private, when you are, in public, here, all the time. Why break that habit?

MR SPEAKER: Do you mean to say that the behaviour here is sobriety?

MR WOOD: Some people in this community cause very considerable community disruption by seeking to get drunk in public. We see that when the Summernats come to town. It is a fine event that we want to see continued, yet a few people would try to ruin that. We had - and we have it back again - a fine food and wine frolic. There are some people who want to abuse the privilege they have and the fine surrounds they have by making a nuisance of themselves in front of a lot of other people. I certainly agree with the Greens and anybody else who says that we must take steps to change this alcohol culture. I will absolutely support that at any time, in this Assembly or out of it.

We had a commitment to have a trial. The trial is over. The report on that trial should not be trashed. It was carried out by a respected, prominent academic, whose methodology seems to me to be quite fine. The report said that there seems to be no particular benefit from the 4.00 am closure, and I think that is what we need. Like others, since then I have listened to people in the community - to the Police Association and to others - who have disputed that. But I think the words are there, the research is there, and we should take note of it.

By all means, let us sit around a table, as the Greens would like us to do - and I am willing to cooperate - and look at measures to begin to change the culture of some people in respect of alcohol consumption. But let the commitments that were given in this Assembly be carried forward. Let us go back to 24-hour trading. I actually think it does not make much difference whether we have 4.00 am closure or 24-hour trading. But that is the system that has operated. That provides some consistency and some easy means of operation and recording. There are only a very few outlets in town that want 24-hour trading. So, I think that is the system we should go back to. That is what we were told would happen after the evaluation - that we would take the recommendations or the findings from that and act upon them. Now, we are not going to do that.

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