Politicians and business leaders cannot be trusted to pour themselves wine. That’s the edict of officialdom at Canberra’s Parliament House.
The Lord High Executioner* of a civilised lunch, Rob Stefanic, Secretary, the Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra, decrees that no longer will waiters ‘leave bottles of wine on tables for service at events.’
Cabinet Ministers, MPs, business leaders, journalists, lobbyists and other members of Australia’s political establishment face a dry argument when listening to Treasurer give his annual post-budget address in Parliament’s Great Hall.
It is the first time curbs are placed at a National Press Club event. No longer will this elite lot be trusted to pour themselves from the two bottles normally left on each table of10.
Responsible service of alcohol policy has reached a new level of stupidity. Yoshi Bashan explained in The Australian: “Never previously an issue, some sour-mouthed bureaucrats now have concerns over the practice in light of the Jenkins review,” he wrote, “which probed parliament’s boozy work culture (prompted by the alleged assault of Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins).”
Stefanic advised the Press Club the decision followed his department’s “commitments underpinned by the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces (Jenkins review), representation by Drinkwise and public declaration at a recent Parliamentary Friends of Preventative and Public Health event.”
*Maybe listening to the Mikado’s Lord High Executioner will lighten the mood
