PM Transcripts

Thanks very much, and thank you very much, Mike, for those kind remarks before. Tony Kelly, the President of Brisbane Lions Football Club, Steve Kernighan, President of Carlton, Jeanne Pratt - where you, Jeanne? Just wonderful to have you here with us, and I share all those sentiments which have been expressed earlier this evening about Dick's contribution to the game, his great and continuing support for the Carlton Football Club, and we are all the poorer for his passing.And to you, the sponsors and friends and football fans one and all, welcome to my electorate. That's where you are, each and every one of you, you're in the Federal Division of Griffith and I'm greeting you as your Federal Member. And those of you who have come from interstate, those of you who have the unfortunate habit of being Carlton supporters, there is a local bylaw which is that if, perchance, you were to lose this evening, we intend to lock the place down. You will not escape.It's great to be back at the Gabba, it's great to be back home. One of the great delights in being the local member here is that I live about 15 minutes' walk that way, so in the last decade or so that I've been backing the Lions, it has been a great advantage to be able to walk to this ground, and to walk home, and it's been less of an advantage, however, to go out in the middle at the end of the game and try and kick a football around with my sons. That's led to general commentary from all those other dads who have been out on a ground with me doing that saying that I should stick to my day job, and they were absolutely right.What is terrific is to be back here tonight to see the Lions back where they belong, and that's playing football in the month of September. It's a fantastic thing to say. Five long years, not that any of us have been counting, since 2004. '01, '02, '03 weren't bad, '04 was pretty good, and it's great to be back.But it's also great to be back against a team such as Carlton, which has such an extraordinary history. You think of the history of the AFL, what would its history be without the likes of Carlton and Collingwood? They are so steeped in the game's past and so vital in the game's future.My (inaudible) in saying a few things here tonight is to do with the campaign which Mike referred to before, which we launched at the MCG only a couple of days ago, and I did so with Sam Mitchell from Hawthorne.Just think - here are three facts which I'd just like you to reflect on. The first is this: 70 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds have been exposed to alcohol-related violence - that's 70 percent. The second is this: three out of four assaults in our country are alcohol-related. The third one is this: three out of four street offences in our country are alcohol-related as well.This should all give us national pause for thought, and whether you're from Melbourne, whether you're from Sydney, whether you're from Bris like I am, or the other metropolitan centres of our country, there is a real problem out there which we've got to deal with, and it's alcohol-fuelled violence.Those of us who are parents, those of us who have got kids who are out on a Friday night and a Saturday night, your heart goes into your mouth these days in terms of what's going on out there. We've actually got to do better as a community in our response to it, and at multiple levels.One of those levels has been, I think, the extraordinary support given to us by the heroes and the leaders of the AFL, and that's why I was so proud to be there recently at the MCG, launching this 'Just Think' campaign. Very simply, it's this: no-one out there, including the captains of the teams, is saying to the young people of Australia 'don't drink.' What they are saying is 'just think.'What they are saying is it's fine to go out there when there's a big game on and to have a party and to celebrate with your mates and your friends. That's good, that's natural, that's an Australian thing to do, and all of us have been young and all of us have been out there and all of us have celebrated. But it also comes with a responsibility, which is to understand when you've got to draw the line, when you've got to stop, when you've got to just think.And that's what this campaign is all about, and when you see the ad which you'll see across our nation's television screens and in our papers and on radio, it's our eight AFL captains, including the Juddster, including Brownie, including a whole bunch of others, simply saying to the young people of Australia, young men in particular, that it's fine to go out there, it's fine to go out there and have a drink with your mates, but think about, just think about what happens if the next morning you're permanently confined to a wheelchair. Think about it if the next morning your mate is, frankly, impeded from ever speaking again. Think about it again if as a consequence of that big night out which just went too far, and too long, too hard, that they lose a limb through alcohol-related violence.And that's why it's such a great campaign, so I'd ask each and every one of you as supporters of this great code, in your own way, in your own part of Australia, in your own profession, get behind the campaign. See the ad, talk about it, talk about it to your friends and your colleagues, in particular your kids, because this is part and parcel of the challenge, getting inside the heads of our young people who we all know, because we've all been young once, they all believe, as we all did, that we are invincible and invulnerable - and we're not.That's what the campaign's all about.One final thing for me, and it goes to how much of my continued appreciation for what the AFL Players Association is doing, not just what goes on on the field, but what they are engaged in off the field. This thing here, which many of you are wearing on your lapels, causes us to remind ourselves of some of the excellent work that they are doing.A few nights ago in Melbourne, I spent some time with the Melbourne City Mission, and this is a group which looks after anywhere between 200 and 300 requests every week to find somewhere to stay for Melbourne's young homeless. 200-300 requests a week, trying to find somewhere for people to stay for a whole range of different reasons.One of the great things that the Players Association has done is dug deep and contributed to the building, construction and now the operation of a homeless centre for young people in Carlton, the suburb of Carlton in Melbourne. I think it's the suburb of Melbourne, thereabouts anyway.That, I think, is a very practical way in which the players of this great code stick their hands in their pocket and do something practical, and that sort of project should be commended.So from me, two big thank yous tonight, and both to the Players Association. One for getting behind this fantastic campaign, important campaign 'Just Think', and the second is to say thank you also for their practical work for young people who are doing it tough out there, and on any night of the week can't find a place to stay.So thank you to Carlton for being with us tonight. Don't go too well, and as your local member I can shut this suburb down.Enjoy the game, everyone.