Anti-Alcohol Sector Plays Hardball

ANTI-ALCOHOL SECTOR PLAYING HARDBALL

WITH THE NATIONAL ALCOHOL STRATEGY

By Tony Battaglene, the Chief Executive of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia

Iattended a round table meeting in Parliament House on 24th July 2018, to discuss the draft National Alcohol Strategy (NAS). The draft NAS was released for comment in November 2017 and received criticism from the anti-alcohol movement for not imposing higher taxes, advertising bans and more restrictions on the alcohol sector. It was also criticised by WFA, for suggesting the formation of an Alcohol Reference Group to provide advice on alcohol policy, that explicitly excluded representatives from the alcohol industries.

The invite-only round table was convened by the Health Minister, The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, to seek input into the strategy. He made it clear that he intended to finalise the strategy by the end of 2018, and wished to strengthen it with respect to policy around FASD, Indigenous Health and Protection of Children.

There were 30 participants at the round table, with five invited representatives from the alcohol sector – WFA, Alcohol Beverages Australia, Australian Hotels Association, DrinkWise and the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code. The rest of the participants were from the anti-alcohol sector and health professionals.

It was a very hostile environment and there was a very strong push from the anti-alcohol lobby and the health professionals for a taxation increase for the wine sector. There was also a strong push for advertising bans and restrictions on availability of alcohol. The overall performance target for most of the participants was to reduce the overall consumption of alcohol.

There was consensus on the need for evidence based policy measures and a recognition that targets around reducing alcohol related harm needed to be set. There was a recognition that there were many data gaps which needed to be resolved so that policy outcomes could be measured and assessed for effectiveness.

The depth of hostile feeling against the alcohol industry, and specifically the wine industry was quite disturbing. It is clear that we have a lot of work to do if we want to avoid draconian policy measures around alcohol recommended in the NAS. Fortunately, the Minister appears to be taking a balanced view to this debate, but the powerful and well-resourced anti-alcohol sector are applying a lot of political pressure.

On the positive side, there is a lot of support from all sides for a National Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) Scheme and we hope that this will be one of the positive outcomes from the NAS.

The next steps in this process are for the officials in the Department of Health to redraft the strategy in light of the discussion at the round table. There will then be further consultation between other Government Departments at the State and Federal level, with the objective of approval by the Ministerial Drug and Alcohol Forum (MDAF) in November/ December.

The MDAF is co-chaired by the Commonwealth Ministers with portfolio responsibility for alcohol and other drugs (AOD), and justice/law enforcement. State Ministers are represented equally on the forum and their votes will be crucial in determining a fair outcome for the Australian wine sector.