Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A move to scrap the minimum floor price in the
Northern Territory is going to be debated this week as
the government well plans to remove the legislation, which was
introduced a while back in an effort to stop problem
drinkers accessing cheap alcohol. The Health Minister, Steve Edgington, made
the announcement earlier in the week and said the minimum
(00:20):
unit price didn't work and scrapping it was part of
the colp's commitment to tackle the scourge of alcohol related harm.
Now not everyone agrees. The People's Alcohol Action Coalition says
it's difficult to understand why a government whose top priority
is supposedly to lower crime rates, including domestic violence, would
(00:40):
remove the minimum unit price. Now the legislation falls under
the Minister for Tourism and Hospitality, Marie Claire Boothby, who
joins me on the line. Good morning to your minister.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, why
is the government scrapping the floor price?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So, Katie, this was an election commitment that we took
to the election and we believe that it's no good
to punish all Territorians who do the right thing, because
those that can't drink responsibility responsibly actually are still drinking
more than they ever were before. I mean, you only
have to look at the alcohol related assaults over the
(01:22):
last year eight years under labor where we've had a
territory wide increase of thirty eight percent, and in Parmesan
where I live, it's increased by one hundred and forty percent.
I mean, those numbers speak volumes. And the fact of
the matter is that the minimum floor price, which Labour
said just hasn't worked.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Because the People's Alcohol Action Coalition sees that it beggars
belief that the government's plan to legislate away the floor
price was an Outstoll Monday, the same day as the
NT Coroner handed down her findings on the alcohol fueled
homicides of for Aboriginal women. Are you concerned the loosening
of any alcohol related legislation could have adverse impacts. I
(02:04):
mean we saw that in Alice Springs when the Stronger
Futures legislation ended at the beginning of last year.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So Katie, what we know is that people are not
drinking less. In fact, what they've done with the introduction
of the floor price is they've changed from drinking cask
wines that are in soft boxes and moved to hard spirits,
which of course has a higher alcohol content. And those
hard spirits are in glass bottles, and we have found
(02:31):
that those glass bottles end up being weapons when they
are consumed and they're empty, and all of a sudden,
there's domestic violence, there's alcohol related harm that happens not
only in people's homes but in the public arena, and
those glass bottles end up smashed everywhere. And you only
have to walk around the streets to see the change
in what used to be sort of soft silver pillows
(02:54):
around the place, and now we have smashed glass bottles.
So clearly it's not working. And when it comes to
the price of alcohol, it's not a barrier for people
who want to drink. And we know, I want to
act to say alcohol. We know that the going rate
of bundy rum in what air there is around five
hundred dollars KDE, and that's incredible, like to think that
(03:15):
it's definitely not that price on the shelf when you
go a bottle shop, and remember the peak demand it
said that it was twelve hundred dollars a bottle, so
you know, when you're looking at the average wages in
what Air as an example, to be about one thousand
dollars a week, If they're spending that amount of money
on bottles of hard spirits, which are glass bottles, it
(03:36):
just doesn't make any sense. And we're all about making
sure that we focus on the demand of alcohol. And
unfortunately the minimum four price. While they tried to bring
it in, and they brought it in with a host
of other measures, it clearly has not worked. We know
that hard spirits, the consumption of hard spirits has gone up,
and that just means that this hasn't been working.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Look, I guess the difficulty we've got is we know
in the Northern Territory that there are so many issues
when it comes to alcohol and alcohol fuel violence. I
mean the coronial findings from earlier in the week demonstrate
that as well. But we also, as I mentioned earlier,
we saw at the beginning of last year when the
Stronger Futures legislation lapsed tratorians where they're like, well, do
(04:20):
you know what the majority of us do the right thing?
Why are we all being punished? But then what I
worry about is the ramifications and if we might see
a real increase in alcohol fueled violence as a result
of the scrapping of this floor price. So what do
you say to territorians that are concerned.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
About that, Katie, It's the same argument. I mean, the
fact that people are still accessing alcohol and price is
not the barrier here. If they can't afford it, then
they find a way to get it. And that's even
worse because that means that they're actually people who are
really dependent on alcohol will break into houses or businesses
to get that alcohol. So the floor price that is
(05:00):
not making a difference in our community. Otherwise we would
have seen a reduction in alcohol related harm and we
would have seen a huge reduction in alcohol presentations to
the hospital, which it's actually been quite the opposite. And
we you know, it's an approach where we know it's
not working because otherwise it would have seen a reduction.
We know it's not working because people are drinking more
(05:22):
hard spirits than they were before. So we don't want
everyone to be punished by having to pay those floor prices,
and just because of the problems of a few people
like it's really important to focus on the demand of alcohol,
and that's where the previous government just didn't want to
look at that. They were always looking at how do
we try and restrict alcohol being sold in the territory
(05:45):
and how do we restrict everybody not being able to
get their hands on alcohol? And that just doesn't work,
and so we need to make sure that not only
are we making territorian's life easier the ones that are
doing the right thing, but also making sure that we
focus on those that are doing the wrong thing. And
that's why we introduced the laws that we did in
(06:06):
our first inttings of Parliament to give police more powers
to deal with the news and drinkers, and of course
they can find, charge or arrest them where they are
drinking in prohibited areas. And it's also why we're looking
at those root causes of alcohol misuse. We absolutely need
to look at the rehabilitation of alcoholics because all that
does is cause misery for themselves and other people. When
(06:29):
if we can get them into a program and a
facility where they're not being able to harm themselves or
others around them, that's where we can actually make the
difference to reduce that alcohol related harm.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So are we're going to see an increase in the
numbers of boosting of rehabilitation services.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, so that's the work that Steve Edgington, the Health
Minister and Alcohol Minister, and myself as the churism hospitality
where the regulations for alcohol seats. That's the work we're
doing right now to try and find those facilities that
we can use, get the right programs in place. There's
a whole raft of things that need to be looked
at here. But at the end of the day, this
(07:06):
was a commitment we made to territori in so that
we would scrap the minimum flaw price. That's exactly what
we're doing and there's an expectation that it's going to
be done.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And I mean there is serious concerns so being raised
here by you know, by health experts. You have got
those that work as alcohol researchers really urging you to
reconsider this. But it doesn't sound like that is going
to be the case. It sounds as the government is
going to forge your head. So what are the next steps?
(07:35):
Is it going to pass through? Is the legislative change
going to pass through parliament this week or just be debated?
How quickly is it going to happen?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So, Katie, this legislation will be introduced tomorrow into Parliament
and then it will sit on the notice papers so
to speak, for right through over the Christmas period until February,
which is our next sittings after Christmas. So that will
mean that whilst we took it to the election, there
was widespread consultation with industry but also territorians and all
(08:04):
of those groups that you mentioned. It'll be another round
of being able to do that. People will be able
to have their say, they'll be able to talk to
me and write to me about that. But we're really
serious about our election commitments, which is to reduce crime
and to restore our territory lifestyle and you know, having
a beer with your mates at the end of the
(08:24):
day on a Friday, or having a wine with dinner.
I mean, these are the Territorians that they do the
right thing, they're responsible, and yet they're being punished by
having increased prices of their alcohol when it's only the
few that have problems with drinking and cause so much
harm to our community. And it's those people that we
need to focus on so that.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
We're right, Minister. Before I let you go in your portfolios,
obviously with tourism and also hospitality. We know that we
were speaking earlier in the week about the cost of
airfares and the fact that the airport are looking to
increase their fees and the impact that that may then
have on the cost of airline tickets. It was an
(09:06):
issue that was raised by ABC's state line. Are you
working with or have you now spoken to the Airport
Development Group about this? And are you worried that this
is going to see those already sky high airfare costs
go up even.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Further, Katief, I am worried, and Territorians are also worried.
I mean airline prices. Airfare prices has been a long
time battle for Territorians. You know, when you want to
cut away for Christmas, unless you book sort of six
months in advance, it's really difficult to get in and
out of here, not only with the prices, but also
that the flight times. When we were elected in August,
(09:45):
we made a very deliberate change to the aviation portfolio.
Used to sit under the Tourism Minister and the Chief
Minister changed that to now sit under the Minister for Business,
Trade and Asian Relations. The reason for that is because
of course aviation is far more reaching than just tourism.
(10:07):
Like it's also very business centric. I mean we've got
businesses that set up here and they need to have
airfares that allow their staff to be able to fly
in and out if they've moved here from elsewhere. And
you know there's even you know, operations like Minds and
things that rely heavily on aviation. So with the Minister,
(10:27):
Minister Carl who's responsible for that now, I know that
she has been fiercely speaking with all of those stakeholders,
including the Airport Development Group and the airlines. The Chief
Minister herself has been involved in some of those meetings
as well myself as the Tourism Minister. Whilst it's not
specifically under my portfolio, now I take it very seriously
(10:47):
because there is a huge impact to the tourism industry.
So I to him in those meetings most of the time,
and it's all about just looking at it from a
different perspective, having more people at the table and we're
having those convers stations because we do need to keep
the airlines accountable and we do need to keep the
Airport Development Group accountable as well, so that we can
ensure that Territorians are not being gouged when they're booking
(11:11):
their flights.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Are they all just being greedy?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Look, I wouldn't say that. I don't know exactly they're
reasoning behind some of these changes that they're looking to make.
But at the end of the day, we all need
to work together as a government in these different ministry
roles to make sure that we keep these airlines and
the airport's accountable to say, look, this impacts everybody, like
(11:37):
every single Territorian is impacted when the flights prices increase
like they have and we can't accept it. We need
to keep pushing back on them and to tell them
that they need to find ways to make it affordable.
And that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Well. Attorney General and Minister for Tourism and Hospitality, Marie
Claire Boothby, really appreciate your time this morning. I know
it's to be day in Parliament. Thanks so much for
having a chat with us.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Thanks Katie, thank you you too.
A move to scrap the minimum floor price in the
Northern Territory is going to be debated this week as
the government well plans to remove the legislation, which was
introduced a while back in an effort to stop problem
drinkers accessing cheap alcohol. The Health Minister, Steve Edgington, made
the announcement earlier in the week and said the minimum
(00:20):
unit price didn't work and scrapping it was part of
the colp's commitment to tackle the scourge of alcohol related harm.
Now not everyone agrees. The People's Alcohol Action Coalition says
it's difficult to understand why a government whose top priority
is supposedly to lower crime rates, including domestic violence, would
(00:40):
remove the minimum unit price. Now the legislation falls under
the Minister for Tourism and Hospitality, Marie Claire Boothby, who
joins me on the line. Good morning to your minister.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, why
is the government scrapping the floor price?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So, Katie, this was an election commitment that we took
to the election and we believe that it's no good
to punish all Territorians who do the right thing, because
those that can't drink responsibility responsibly actually are still drinking
more than they ever were before. I mean, you only
have to look at the alcohol related assaults over the
(01:22):
last year eight years under labor where we've had a
territory wide increase of thirty eight percent, and in Parmesan
where I live, it's increased by one hundred and forty percent.
I mean, those numbers speak volumes. And the fact of
the matter is that the minimum floor price, which Labour
said just hasn't worked.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Because the People's Alcohol Action Coalition sees that it beggars
belief that the government's plan to legislate away the floor
price was an Outstoll Monday, the same day as the
NT Coroner handed down her findings on the alcohol fueled
homicides of for Aboriginal women. Are you concerned the loosening
of any alcohol related legislation could have adverse impacts. I
(02:04):
mean we saw that in Alice Springs when the Stronger
Futures legislation ended at the beginning of last year.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So Katie, what we know is that people are not
drinking less. In fact, what they've done with the introduction
of the floor price is they've changed from drinking cask
wines that are in soft boxes and moved to hard spirits,
which of course has a higher alcohol content. And those
hard spirits are in glass bottles, and we have found
(02:31):
that those glass bottles end up being weapons when they
are consumed and they're empty, and all of a sudden,
there's domestic violence, there's alcohol related harm that happens not
only in people's homes but in the public arena, and
those glass bottles end up smashed everywhere. And you only
have to walk around the streets to see the change
in what used to be sort of soft silver pillows
(02:54):
around the place, and now we have smashed glass bottles.
So clearly it's not working. And when it comes to
the price of alcohol, it's not a barrier for people
who want to drink. And we know, I want to
act to say alcohol. We know that the going rate
of bundy rum in what air there is around five
hundred dollars KDE, and that's incredible, like to think that
(03:15):
it's definitely not that price on the shelf when you
go a bottle shop, and remember the peak demand it
said that it was twelve hundred dollars a bottle, so
you know, when you're looking at the average wages in
what Air as an example, to be about one thousand
dollars a week, If they're spending that amount of money
on bottles of hard spirits, which are glass bottles, it
(03:36):
just doesn't make any sense. And we're all about making
sure that we focus on the demand of alcohol. And
unfortunately the minimum four price. While they tried to bring
it in, and they brought it in with a host
of other measures, it clearly has not worked. We know
that hard spirits, the consumption of hard spirits has gone up,
and that just means that this hasn't been working.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Look, I guess the difficulty we've got is we know
in the Northern Territory that there are so many issues
when it comes to alcohol and alcohol fuel violence. I
mean the coronial findings from earlier in the week demonstrate
that as well. But we also, as I mentioned earlier,
we saw at the beginning of last year when the
Stronger Futures legislation lapsed tratorians where they're like, well, do
(04:20):
you know what the majority of us do the right thing?
Why are we all being punished? But then what I
worry about is the ramifications and if we might see
a real increase in alcohol fueled violence as a result
of the scrapping of this floor price. So what do
you say to territorians that are concerned.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
About that, Katie, It's the same argument. I mean, the
fact that people are still accessing alcohol and price is
not the barrier here. If they can't afford it, then
they find a way to get it. And that's even
worse because that means that they're actually people who are
really dependent on alcohol will break into houses or businesses
to get that alcohol. So the floor price that is
(05:00):
not making a difference in our community. Otherwise we would
have seen a reduction in alcohol related harm and we
would have seen a huge reduction in alcohol presentations to
the hospital, which it's actually been quite the opposite. And
we you know, it's an approach where we know it's
not working because otherwise it would have seen a reduction.
We know it's not working because people are drinking more
(05:22):
hard spirits than they were before. So we don't want
everyone to be punished by having to pay those floor prices,
and just because of the problems of a few people
like it's really important to focus on the demand of alcohol,
and that's where the previous government just didn't want to
look at that. They were always looking at how do
we try and restrict alcohol being sold in the territory
(05:45):
and how do we restrict everybody not being able to
get their hands on alcohol? And that just doesn't work,
and so we need to make sure that not only
are we making territorian's life easier the ones that are
doing the right thing, but also making sure that we
focus on those that are doing the wrong thing. And
that's why we introduced the laws that we did in
(06:06):
our first inttings of Parliament to give police more powers
to deal with the news and drinkers, and of course
they can find, charge or arrest them where they are
drinking in prohibited areas. And it's also why we're looking
at those root causes of alcohol misuse. We absolutely need
to look at the rehabilitation of alcoholics because all that
does is cause misery for themselves and other people. When
(06:29):
if we can get them into a program and a
facility where they're not being able to harm themselves or
others around them, that's where we can actually make the
difference to reduce that alcohol related harm.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So are we're going to see an increase in the
numbers of boosting of rehabilitation services.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, so that's the work that Steve Edgington, the Health
Minister and Alcohol Minister, and myself as the churism hospitality
where the regulations for alcohol seats. That's the work we're
doing right now to try and find those facilities that
we can use, get the right programs in place. There's
a whole raft of things that need to be looked
at here. But at the end of the day, this
(07:06):
was a commitment we made to territori in so that
we would scrap the minimum flaw price. That's exactly what
we're doing and there's an expectation that it's going to
be done.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And I mean there is serious concerns so being raised
here by you know, by health experts. You have got
those that work as alcohol researchers really urging you to
reconsider this. But it doesn't sound like that is going
to be the case. It sounds as the government is
going to forge your head. So what are the next steps?
(07:35):
Is it going to pass through? Is the legislative change
going to pass through parliament this week or just be debated?
How quickly is it going to happen?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So, Katie, this legislation will be introduced tomorrow into Parliament
and then it will sit on the notice papers so
to speak, for right through over the Christmas period until February,
which is our next sittings after Christmas. So that will
mean that whilst we took it to the election, there
was widespread consultation with industry but also territorians and all
(08:04):
of those groups that you mentioned. It'll be another round
of being able to do that. People will be able
to have their say, they'll be able to talk to
me and write to me about that. But we're really
serious about our election commitments, which is to reduce crime
and to restore our territory lifestyle and you know, having
a beer with your mates at the end of the
(08:24):
day on a Friday, or having a wine with dinner.
I mean, these are the Territorians that they do the
right thing, they're responsible, and yet they're being punished by
having increased prices of their alcohol when it's only the
few that have problems with drinking and cause so much
harm to our community. And it's those people that we
need to focus on so that.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
We're right, Minister. Before I let you go in your portfolios,
obviously with tourism and also hospitality. We know that we
were speaking earlier in the week about the cost of
airfares and the fact that the airport are looking to
increase their fees and the impact that that may then
have on the cost of airline tickets. It was an
(09:06):
issue that was raised by ABC's state line. Are you
working with or have you now spoken to the Airport
Development Group about this? And are you worried that this
is going to see those already sky high airfare costs
go up even.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Further, Katief, I am worried, and Territorians are also worried.
I mean airline prices. Airfare prices has been a long
time battle for Territorians. You know, when you want to
cut away for Christmas, unless you book sort of six
months in advance, it's really difficult to get in and
out of here, not only with the prices, but also
that the flight times. When we were elected in August,
(09:45):
we made a very deliberate change to the aviation portfolio.
Used to sit under the Tourism Minister and the Chief
Minister changed that to now sit under the Minister for Business,
Trade and Asian Relations. The reason for that is because
of course aviation is far more reaching than just tourism.
(10:07):
Like it's also very business centric. I mean we've got
businesses that set up here and they need to have
airfares that allow their staff to be able to fly
in and out if they've moved here from elsewhere. And
you know there's even you know, operations like Minds and
things that rely heavily on aviation. So with the Minister,
(10:27):
Minister Carl who's responsible for that now, I know that
she has been fiercely speaking with all of those stakeholders,
including the Airport Development Group and the airlines. The Chief
Minister herself has been involved in some of those meetings
as well myself as the Tourism Minister. Whilst it's not
specifically under my portfolio, now I take it very seriously
(10:47):
because there is a huge impact to the tourism industry.
So I to him in those meetings most of the time,
and it's all about just looking at it from a
different perspective, having more people at the table and we're
having those convers stations because we do need to keep
the airlines accountable and we do need to keep the
Airport Development Group accountable as well, so that we can
ensure that Territorians are not being gouged when they're booking
(11:11):
their flights.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Are they all just being greedy?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Look, I wouldn't say that. I don't know exactly they're
reasoning behind some of these changes that they're looking to make.
But at the end of the day, we all need
to work together as a government in these different ministry
roles to make sure that we keep these airlines and
the airport's accountable to say, look, this impacts everybody, like
(11:37):
every single Territorian is impacted when the flights prices increase
like they have and we can't accept it. We need
to keep pushing back on them and to tell them
that they need to find ways to make it affordable.
And that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Well. Attorney General and Minister for Tourism and Hospitality, Marie
Claire Boothby, really appreciate your time this morning. I know
it's to be day in Parliament. Thanks so much for
having a chat with us.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Thanks Katie, thank you you too.
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