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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1871 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (8.58), in reply: First of all, I thank the opposition and welcome its support on this matter. Whatever we may feel about the principle of alcohol consumption, the argument about diverting a subsidy to New South Wales is a very compelling one. That is of significance.

Mr Speaker, I want to touch on a couple of the things Ms Tucker had to say; they were utterly extraordinary. First of all, Ms Tucker is continually chiding the government about not doing enough preparation, not doing enough research, not having enough consultation and not preparing enough papers. It should be obvious to everybody in this debate that the decision to match our rate of subsidy for alcoholic products with that of New South Wales was absolutely necessary in order to avoid there being a rush of people across the border to buy our subsidised liquor.

In those circumstances, I would have thought it was not necessary to produce further evidence and do further research and further homework on the policy issues underlying this question. Ms Tucker says, "No, I want to see something. I want to know what is going on. What evidence is there that people will not switch to higher strength alcohol products if the subsidy is taken away"-partially taken away-"from low alcohol beer and other products?" Fortunately, in this case it was possible to produce some evidence. What is more, a study was done in the ACT at a couple of very reputable establishments in Weston Creek, which is part of my electorate. Mr Quinlan may have heard of these establishments as well.

Mr Quinlan: Only in passing!

MR HUMPHRIES: Only in passing! Actually, it was specifically ACT-based research on an alcohol consumption issue, something we have quite rarely in this place. We are a tiny territory of 300,000 people. We have not got the chance to do research programs on every aspect of public policy in the ACT.

Mr Quinlan: I'll bet that study could not stand up to any statistical challenge whatsoever.

MR HUMPHRIES: Absolutely.

Mr Quinlan: Come on, we asked six drinkers.

MR HUMPHRIES: Any challenge can be made, Mr Speaker. We normally do not have the capacity to withstand that challenge, but in this case we actually had a study. Admittedly it is now 16 years old, but it was a comprehensive study based in the ACT, measuring the impact of price differentials in low-alcohol products.

Ms Tucker says, "That is not good enough. I want something more. I want something up to date. Give me some more information." Mr Speaker, sometimes in my wildest dreams I wish that we had a test tube in which we had a Green government so that we could see how long it was before it disappeared in a puff of smoke, completely disintegrating, out of its own lack of logic. Mr Speaker, it is just mind-boggling.

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