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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (28 November) . . Page.. 3249 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

There was no consideration of the fact that perhaps the sale of soft drink in bottles represents as significant a problem in terms of potential danger or damage. There was no consideration of the fact that the sale of alcohol in areas around Canberra other than perhaps Civic would be affected by this all-embracing proposal. There was no suggestion that a more serious problem in relation to the consumption of alcohol on the sorts of occasions that the Attorney seeks to address here was the consumption of spirits or the consumption of some of those drinks that seem to be incredibly popular with young people these days, the things that I see them drinking-made-up concoctions of spirits and sundry other mixers. Drinks that are incredibly popular with young people are bourbon and coke, and vodka and whatever they drink with vodka. All of these products will continue to be available for sale.

It is a very specific ban that has been proposed here-a ban just on beer. The suggestion is that it is the beer drinkers who are the antisocial elements within the community. There is no suggestion that it is other elements of the community-the chardonnay-sipping class-that should be targeted in relation to antisocial behaviour.

We think the legislation is an inconsistent and a broad sweep knee-jerk response to what is admittedly a recognised significant problem and perhaps a growing problem. We are not at all convinced that the approach the Attorney suggests be adopted-that we provide regulations that will allow him to declare throughout the year when certain substances will or will not be available for sale-is an appropriate response to a public safety issue or to an issue around public behaviour. He seeks to address a public behaviour issue by the wholesale banning of the availability of a particular product.

It is exactly the same as the argument that some would apply in relation to the provision of syringes through a needle exchange program. It appears that one way of dealing with the issue of irresponsible, antisocial disposal of syringes is to make it extremely difficult to distribute syringes through a needle exchange program. It is a similar response to another major potentially difficult issue we need to deal with. One response in relation to the irresponsible disposal of glass beer containers is to ban the product.

It seems to me that we need to look at and classify these particular sorts of difficult issues that you are seeking to address. We need to focus on the real issue. The real issue is the antisocial behaviour. Is the best way of dealing with the antisocial behaviour to ban the product or to go to the source of the problem? I do not think it is. I think we need to be a little bit more innovative in our approaches to these sorts of issues than simply to say, "This is all really hard. Let us just ban that product."

We do not think the Attorney has put any real thought into this. He has left it extremely late. He now proposes to pursue this particular initiative through the making of regulations. He has left it to this stage of the year, so that any regulations that are subsequently made will not be susceptible to disallowance by this place before the ban comes into being. It is a pity that he has sat on his hands in the way he has; that he has left it to this stage so that we cannot see the detail; and that in the development of the proposal he has been so inconsistent and unconvincing.

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