Turner Judy: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Turner Judy: Customs and Excise (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5422] 
JUDY TURNER (United Future) 
: 
 I would like to speak as simply as I can so that we can get this issue clearly spelt out. The best way I can think of doing that is anecdotal. Let us invent a person called Jimmy who is 13 years old and in the third form. Tonight he is going around to his friend’s place with $10 in his pocket. The $10 may be his pocket money his paper run money what mum and dad gave him for fish and chips tonight or he might have nicked it out of a wallet somewhere—but he has $10. The problem facing him is that when he gets to his mate’s there is a seventh-form older brother there who is 18 and can buy them the booze they want using Jimmy’s $10. The issue is what will that $10 buy him? He wants value for money. Apparently he can get one if not two of the drinks that are sitting on Mr Ron Mark’s table. The combined alcoholic content of those will be what Mr Mark? Five apiece? OK. 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: Which combined is what? 
JUDY TURNER 
: Ten percent? [ 
Interruption 
] I will tell Mr Sowry what the boy can actually buy instead of those drinks and he will have change out of his $10. Instead of buying those two drinks he can get the older brother to purchase a 23 percent proof spirit that has been targeted at and marketed to teenagers. In fact he can get 750 mls of it which is about 22 shots or 11 standard drinks. 
John Carter 
: That’s 100 percent! 
JUDY TURNER 
: No 23 percent. 
John Carter 
: So if he had two bottles it would be 46 percent! 
JUDY TURNER 
: He can afford one bottle of that and he will have some change left over. The issue for a 13-year-old boy is that he wants value for his money. He wants to get the “coolest” drink that will give him the status he is looking for and that drink will do it for him. It is targeted at him and it is 23 percent proof. He can get it and in some places have change from his $10. He will struggle to afford two of Mr Mark’s drinks but he will be able to get— 
Ron Mark 
: So there is now no problem with these drinks for teenagers? 
JUDY TURNER 
: We have a problem with under-age drinkers full stop but what we are trying to achieve here is harm minimisation. If they are going to illegally have access to alcohol then our concern is that their pocket money goes a lot further with the 23 percent proof spirits that are at present bottled and marketed to teenagers. It has nothing to do with the bottles sitting there on the member’s desk. He has the wrong product. 
Ron Mark 
: Do you support alcohol? 
JUDY TURNER 
: United Future does not support under-age drinking. What we are concerned about is that where under-age drinking is happening the pocket money of teenagers can supply them with drinks that have an extremely high level of alcohol and are dangerous for them to be experimenting with. That is why this legislation covers those special products that fall between 14 percent and 23 percent. We are not talking about sherry or port; we are talking about the products that fall within that range and can be picked up for $8 to $10 right now. 
Ron Mark 
: Where? 
JUDY TURNER 
: At liquor outlets. 
Ron Mark 
: And they can buy a 750 ml bottle for $10? 
JUDY TURNER 
: Yes because it is below the 24 percent banding mark and therefore does not at this stage incur the taxation that would put it out of the reach of the teenager with pocket money who is looking to illegally buy alcohol.