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Key Points
- Barnaby Joyce has faced scrutiny after a video emerged of him lying on the pavement and slurring profanities.
- Zali Steggal says alcohol consumption in parliament must be curbed by introducing breath testing as a “deterrent”.
- Neither Anthony Albanese nor Peter Dutton have expressed support for a ban on politicians drinking at work.
A similar query is being raised by many others in the wake of attention on two federal politicians whose use of alcohol has sparked a debate about parliament workplace culture, and even calls for random breath tests in parliament.
“Although I acknowledge when I’m tired or if I’ve had a glass of wine, or if I’m stressed, my throat catches … and I’ll have a coughing fit, sometimes I slur words.”
This MP thinks we should breath-test politicians
“People have had enough of politicians thinking there’s different standards that apply to them in Parliament House than what applies in other workplaces.”
What do the prime minister and Opposition leader think?
“People will make judgements about the behaviour that we’ve seen, because quite clearly, it doesn’t meet standards out there that people expect,” Albanese said.
“Now, that doesn’t excuse it, but it says that 99 per cent of people are doing the right thing, and you need to be extra careful. I think that’s the lesson that you can take out of it.”
Do most workplaces have bans on alcohol?
The majority of employees work for smaller companies that don’t formally have bans on alcohol — except for safety and construction jobs that require, for example, the handling of machinery and equipment, according to David Cheng, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University’s Research School of Management.
James Warn from the School of Business at UNSW Canberra said he’d seen the consumption of alcohol in workplaces reduce dramatically over the years.
“Simple solutions … might send good to different people, but … it’s probably a more complicated environment.”
