Mr SLIPPER (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) (1:38 PM) —I understand it is the wish of the House to consider the requested amendments together, and on that basis I move:

These amendments incorporate the Excise Tariff and Customs Tariff proposals introduced into the House by me on Wednesday evening to the Excise Tariff Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2001 and the Customs Tariff Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2001 respectively. The tariff proposals to be incorporated into these bills by these amendments reduce the rate of excise on certain draught beer, leading to lower prices for beer served over the bar. The Labor Party, having determined on a policy of obstruction in the Senate, stated that it would vote against the original proposals of the government on beer excise contained in these bills.

Mr Crean —The ones that broke your promise.

Mr SLIPPER —The government wanted to keep its promise, as the member opposite knows, and the Labor Party has sought and has actually prevented, through its numbers in the other place, the government from keeping its promise to the Australian people. We want to keep our promises, whereas of course the Labor Party has a history of promising things to the Australian people prior to an election—it is prepared to do anything and say anything to crawl into office—and once it gets into office breaking those promises. Just remember its promises not to sell Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank and remember the l-a-w tax cuts that did not actually occur.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the Labor Party, in its fairly shoddy approach to this particular matter, has been acting as an agent of the breweries, seeking to minimise their tax liability and to obtain a windfall gain. The Australian Democrats have also indicated their opposition to the bills in their original form. Of course, one of the attributes of being successful in politics is being able to understand where the numbers are and it simply was mathematically impossible for the government to obtain the numbers in the Senate—

Mr Crean —The ones that broke your promise.

Mr SLIPPER —No, we wanted to keep our promise. Because we were unable to secure our legislation in the other place, we have sat down and talked with the Australian Democrats in order to reduce the rates of excise and customs duty as they apply to draught beer to secure the support of the other place for these bills.

It is also instrumental to know that the Labor Party did want to return the $115 million to the breweries. But the government wants to allocate the extra excise collected on draught beer since 1 July 2000 to an independent foundation which will focus on preventing alcohol and other licit substance abuse. The Prime Minister has been able to sit down with Senator Meg Lees, the Leader of the Australian Democrats, and has been able to reach an agreement on allocating the additional excise to a new alcohol education and rehabilitation foundation. This charitable trust, which is independent, will have the resources to make a significant contribution towards the prevention of alcohol and other licit substance abuse, including petrol sniffing. The ALP wanted to give the money back to their friends in the breweries but the government and the Democrats have been prepared to sit down and come to an arrangement which will see cheaper prices for beer over the bar, and also we will have this $115 million for setting up a foundation for alcohol education and rehabilitation.

There has been a memorandum of understanding between the government and the Democrats, and it is particularly important for this to be an independent foundation. There will be very substantial benefits to the entire Australian community as a result of the understanding entered into by the government and Senator Meg Lees, the Leader of the Australian Democrats—an understanding which is much better than the Labor Party could have achieved, because they simply wanted to return the money to the brewery companies.

The amendments will reduce the excise rates applying to draught beer, effective from midnight on 4 April 2001. The excise rates applying from 1 July 2000 until 3 April 2001 remain unchanged and are validated by this bill. This is an example of how the government is prepared to sit down and look at a situation to bring about real and meaningful outcomes. I commend the amendments to the chamber.