The Alcohol industry doesn’t want Australians to drink less, judging by leaked National Alcohol Strategy draft
The government is learning a much needed lesson this week that inviting industry figures to comment on strategy that will directly impact their industry probably isn’t a good idea. A leaked draft of the forthcoming National Alcohol Strategy has shown just that, with heavy industry involvement moving the strategy further away from where experts believe it needs to be.
ABC’s Background Briefing has obtained a leaked draft of the document, which is being put forward as a means to combat the rise in alcohol-related harm. Initially a strategy was drafted without the involvement of the alcohol industry, who were invited to a roundtable discussion in July 2018 alongside policy-makers and health experts after causing a fuss about their lack of involvement.
The latest draft now features some stark differences on account of the alcohol industries interest.
Initially, the draft was firm in its wording that the alcohol industry would not be involved, or invited to be involved, in policy decision making, with one reference stating “Australia does not support any ongoing role for industry in setting or developing national alcohol policy.” These references have since been removed.
The first draft also contained language regarding Australia’s “alcohol culture” and the role it plays in regard to an “increased risk of serious harm and the development of harmful drinking patterns.” It also discussed means of “challenging perceptions of risk among Australians about safe drinking levels, including in relation to health impacts”.
However, those points have now been completely de-fanged following the intervention of the alcohol industry. The strategy now makes the much less pointed statement of educating Australians on “excessive alcohol consumption.”
Professor Peter Miller, addiction expert from Deakin University, has been vocal of his disapproval of the industries edits to the strategy. “The alcohol industry consistently has been able to be involved in the policy-making and that’s why we don’t have effective alcohol policies in Australia,”
Professor Miller takes issue with the lack of discussion around the hazards of regular alcohol consumption. “That our governments and bureaucrats aren’t pushing that message clearly in a National Alcohol Strategy is frightening…”It’s a way of normalising. It’s a way of saying, ‘look, there’s no problem here’.”
Policy makers and health experts are also concerned with the lack of language relating to alcohol advertising, in the revised draft, something that has become a bigger issue of late due to targeted digital marketing.
“This is very specific marketing that is directed at individuals’ preferences, because we have these profiles now that Facebook and Google and other digital platforms have built up about us. And these are the sorts of areas where government needs to be getting active now.”
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt is eager to get the strategy locked down and implemented given that he first started in 2017. The leaked document has not gone down well with his colleagues.
Western Australian Health Minister Roger Cook commented “I’m not sure why we need to see it watered down, Minister Hunt now needs to re-examine his conscience.”
Alcohol consumption is estimated to kill 6,000 Australians a year. In 2018, Australian tax payers coughed up $14 billion to foot the health and legal bills associated excessive consumption, a figure that includes costs of crime, productivity loss and road accidents.
Alcohol consumption is posing an increasing risk for Australian society, which was why the strategy is so needed. However, the involvement of the alcohol industry in forming this strategy has been decried as a commercial conflict of interest and has therefore undermined the integrity of the document.
