COMMITTEES

Dr FREELANDER (Macarthur) (10:14): On behalf of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability, I present the committee's report, incorporating dissenting reports, entitled Report on thehealth impacts of alcohol and other drugs in Australia, together with the minutes of proceedings. This is a landmark report into the effects of alcohol and other drugs in Australia.

It's taken two parliaments, and it is really quite a comprehensive look at how in Australia we are spending a very large amount of money on the effects of alcohol and other drugs and how the harms caused by these substances in our society are very difficult to manage. The focus of the inquiry was to identify gaps in our current frameworks for dealing with these harms and thus consider how, as policymakers, we can better address them.

As I said, it is a very comprehensive report. It is a very interesting one. We did quite a significant amount of travel, and I'm very, very grateful to the members of the health committee for the work that they've done and for the way they approached this particular report.

The members across all party lines worked in a very collegiate manner and really were incredibly helpful in how they approached each issue. I can honestly say it is a very bipartisan report that I think will make a significant difference to how we manage alcohol and other drugs in our society for years to come. I'm very grateful for the help of the deputy chair, the member for Kooyong.

Her intelligence and her expertise are in no small way responsible for the comprehensive report that we've delivered. I'm very grateful for her help and her incredibly collegiate manner in which she approached the committee, so thank you. I'd also like to thank our secretariat, and I'd like to mention them each by name because they worked incredibly hard.

They did a lot of extra work and spent a lot of time on this report, and I'm grateful for their help. I'd like to mention Paul Zinkel, Kimberly Elliott, Kilian Perrem, Jack Clews, David Salvestrin and Georgia O'Connor. I'd like to thank them for their help in delivering this report.

The report itself makes 30 recommendations to the Australian government which cover a lot of the work that we did. It's reflective of the complexity of the issues that arose in the evidence that we received. This included more than 300 written submissions and 15 public hearings.

Of course, alcohol is the most common drug for which Australians require treatment and interventions, and the cost to our community is measured in tens of billions of dollars. Whilst the inquiry received evidence of some positive declines in alcohol consumption, the committee is rightly concerned by the continued high levels of harm being experienced in this country from risky alcohol use, particularly by the fact that these impacts are not equally distributed across the population.

There are certainly pockets of severe harm that we need to address. The policy and regulatory landscape that exists in Australia for the marketing, pricing and taxation of alcohol is very complex, but the role that advertising plays in influencing behaviours and attitudes towards alcohol, particularly on young people and those at high risk of alcohol dependence, is concerning.

In particular, I'd like to say the fact that in a developed country like Australia we're still facing significant risks from fetal alcohol syndrome is something that is really a disgrace and needs to be addressed as an urgent manner. The committee's recommendations in regard to alcohol abuse include establishment of mandatory alcohol advertising and marketing frameworks.

It includes increasing research to be conducted on point of sale and alcohol availability. The committee also recommends national standards for the online sale and delivery of alcohol that will consider restrictions on alcohol availability, particularly for high-risk groups in an effort to try and reduce the risk that alcohol poses in family and domestic violence.

The committee also recommends an increase in public awareness amongst men and women across all age groups of the current guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol. It's also been noted in the last few seconds that deaths from overdose are higher than road traffic deaths in Australia every year. This is something that has to be addressed on an urgent basis.

Once again, I'd like to thank my committee members and the secretariat for all their hard work. This is a very important report, and I commend it to the government. Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).