05 December 2008

NSW Government to call for alcohol advertising restrictions

NSW Minister for Health, John Della Bosca, will call for a stronger stance on the restriction of alcohol advertising at the Australian Health Ministers' Conference in Brisbane today (5 December) to help reduce dangerous drinking among young people.

"The Garling Report into acute health services across NSW, released last week, advises that we need to focus on prevention when dealing with the health and well-being of children and young people," Mr Della Bosca said.

"We need to avoid creating a new generation of binge drinkers and to do that we need to use preventative strategies such as restricting alcohol advertising.

"The cost of alcohol abuse to the community nationally is estimated to be more than $15 billion which is mostly made up of sickies, road accidents and healthcare," he said.

Nationally, it is estimated that a total advertising ban could reduce:

• drinking by 25 per cent and road fatalities by 30 per cent;
• social costs of alcohol abuse by $3.86 billion; and
• social costs of road accidents by $960 million.

"According to NSW Health, since 2000, the biggest increase in alcohol-related Emergency Department admissions has been among 18-24 year-olds - up 130 per cent - while female admissions within that group have risen by 200 per cent," the Minister said.

"There is also a lot of community support for the restriction of alcohol advertising.

"The 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found 72.2 per cent of people aged 14 or older supported a ban on all alcohol advertisements before 9:30pm and 48.5 per cent supported banning alcohol sponsorship of sporting events.

"But to be successful we need a national action plan to deal specifically with the partial or total ban of alcohol advertising.

"There is no simple response to deal with alcohol abuse - it is a complex area.

"While law enforcement and licensing controls are powerful means to target alcohol abuse, related crime and antisocial behaviour - and NSW is taking strong action on this front by legislating mandatory 2am lock outs - we also need preventative strategies," Mr Della Bosca said.

The Commonwealth's recent report, The avoidable costs of alcohol abuse in Australia and the potential benefits of effective policies to reduce the social costs of alcohol cites international evidence that advertising leads to higher alcohol consumption.

"Alcohol advertising is among the most sophisticated and persuasive I have seen and it is increasingly clear alcohol companies are not prepared to take a responsible approach on this matter," the Minister said.

"Anyone sitting down to watch the cricket on TV this summer is bombarded with an endless stream of advertisements for beer and spirits.

"Consumer studies, which examine how drinking behaviour and attitudes vary with exposure to alcohol advertising, suggest bans do decrease alcohol consumption.

"It is time we took the influence that alcohol advertising can have on our younger people seriously.

"We need to avoid creating future generations of binge drinkers who not only damage themselves but potentially their families and others in the community," Mr Della Bosca added.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au