To: National Drug Strategy Consultation

To: National Drug Strategy Consultation

Email:

PROFILE: Most of my life I have been involved in the community,I was in the first intake of National Service (1951) thus I am now a member of an RSL sub-branch. I have been active for many years in Apex, Lions and Rotary and am currently an active member of a bowling club.

More recently I have been active in C.D.A.T after our village shopping centre was half burnt down which was caused by under aged drinkers.

In the last four years in my association with C.D.A.T I have written to many Federal and State politicians, attended many meetings and read reports dating back to a 2005 A.B.A.C.report, National Alcohol Strategy 2006 – 2009, as well as many other reports.

I am a Senior Australian with a small business background as well as 20 years in the Paint Industry in sales and promotion positions.

SUBMISSION: My comments on the previous National Alcohol Strategy 2006 – 2009 are that the document is well prepared and sets our clearly all the problems to be overcome.

I recognise the illicit drugs and smoking issues, appropriate action has been taken to obtain manageable levels , e.g. illicit drugs causes roughly 400 deaths per year and alcohol related deaths 4000 per year. So most of our resources should be applied to the fast growing problem of the legal drug alcohol.

However the lack of availability of reliable data on alcohol consumptions in Australia since 1997 in a way seems to be protecting the liquor industry. This should be the first in any new strategy, returning to before 1997 to obtain reliable figures (page 9 of document):

PAGE 9:per capita alcohol consumption in Australia steadily declined from the late 1980’s until the early 1990s when the consumption began to fluctuate. The introduction of RTDs in the early 1990s seems to account for the increase which is creating a new market, reaching the young people – even aged 12 and up - increasing at the rate of at least 9% per year.

-2-

If there was an award for marketing and sales then this segment would win year after year. There is no doubt that this been the fastest growing alcohol market segment.

PAGE 10: The price of alcohol in Australia has remained relatively low – no that is wrong, it has increased at around 10% per year but has not affected drinkers, only that there is more drinking at home and clubs and pubs are feeling the effect of that.

The price of spirits remained almost unchanged - see above.

Between 1990 and 2003 the trend in total alcohol caused deaths declined – certainly not the case today.

The next clause states the truth:

3.3: This what the public/taxpayers want:

•Increasing the number of alcohol free events.

•Increasing the number of alcohol Free Zones (which does not work due to lack of police, and council rangers will not enforce same.

Serving only low alcohol at sporting events has been tried and it affected the “gate” so much that the idea was lost.

•Limiting alcohol TV advertising until after 9.30pm – yes this is a great idea.

•More severe penalties for drink drivers – yes another great idea.

•Stricter laws against serving drunk customers – yes, a must, if not for staff safety alone.

•Restricting late night trading of alcohol – yes this is another must, as it has been trialled in Newcastle and more recently in Melbourne, with successful results particularly in Newcastle.

For the new strategy to work, besides the current education programme on radio, TV, newspapers etc, underage drinking should be strategy no 1 as this is the breeding ground for drinkers of the future and the liquor industry has focussed all their marketing skills - they have no responsibility here - only the bottom line profit. We need to counter this, firstly young people think it is “cool” to drink and even to drink to excess. This is due to ADVERTISING – alcohol advertising is everywhere. Health warnings on RTD labels should describe not only the alcohol content, but also warning of the very high sugar content, and those cola based RTDs containing high caffeine levels.

Shorter trading hours are obvious. Longer hours were intended for our capital cities similar to overseas countries, mainly for tourists arriving in later hours - it was never intended for all of Australia.

-3-

All these issues will be resisted by the liquor industry. The Federal Government should act in Australia’s best interest - our young are gravely at risk.

Some funds have been provided for educational purposes bythe Governmentwhich has only had a slight impact at this stage.

The Federal Government would have to be extremely brave to take on the liquor industry, as both sides of politics depend heavily on the funds provided by the industry, manufacturers contain many overseas companies, and now as well as the hotels and clubs, we have Woolworths and Coles becoming such major players in liquor outlets and now in hotels.

We all know the huge cost to life and health that alcohol causes, this is all clearly on record, but do we ever think of the people at the coal face – the police, and health workers and the hospital staff, all who chose their careers, not expecting to be handling drunks for up to 70% of their time, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. No wonder there has been a significant drop in numbers for these positions.

Other businesses are already affected, often guests in 4 star accommodation near a park or a beach front can have sleepless nights during school holidays, and of course on Friday and Saturday nights outdoor restaurants close to busy streets can be affected. The elderly fear for their safety at night, and in some areas it is similar to New Years Eve. The situation can also be dangerous for our overseas visitors.

When our young people have reached the legal drinking age and are admitted to clubs and hotels, some are heavy seasoned drinkers and often cause extreme trouble to patrons, in some cases this has caused small clubs to close early. So here is a case for raising the drinking age, New Zealand lowering the age to 18 years caused a huge increase in anti-social behaviour.

There are no statistics on the comments or these comments of the many times that communities have reported “Enough is Enough”.

Sadly many thousands of young men died in the World Wars to give us the freedom we enjoy, but we have ended up with a society such as we have now.

We can never stop under age drinking but at least turn the trend and bring it to a manageable level.

The other issue is a skill shortage for the young starting to drink so young , so early in life, often perform badly at school and in sport losing their drive to take on worthwhile jobs.

-4-

Again it is up to the Governments around Australia to take on Big Business as no one else will and no one else can cause the change. Even if the electoral allowance granted to Politicians was greatly increased this would save their dependence on donations from special interest groups.

On this issue I am sad and ashamed that we have allowed this to occur and to allow the problem to grow so large and become this great problem that we now have.

As one state Police Commissioner stated recently “we have lost a generation of our young”. It is now time for action, we have all the facts and figures so most of us would say “Enough is Enough”.

CHARLES LINDSTROM JP