Alcohol in Australia
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
13 Sep 2009
As someone who grew up in a pub and enjoys a glass of wine, I don't think I could be called a wowser. But you can always have too much of a good thing – in the case of alcohol, with devastating consequences.
Since 2000, alcohol-related hospital admissions for 18-24 year olds have increased 130 per cent – 200 per cent for women. 40,000 people in New South Wales are admitted to hospital annually with alcohol-related injuries and illnesses.
Some people argue that alcohol advertising should be banned, as it is for cigarettes. A drastic suggestion, but the federal government estimates it would reduce road deaths by 30 per cent and the broader social costs of alcohol abuse by $3.86 billion each year.
Death, injury and illness, from alcohol cause suffering enough. But there's more: the assaults and violence inside and outside pubs and clubs, the abuse and misery for families and loved ones at home.
In their new book, Under the Influence, Ross Fitzgerald and Trevor Jordan focus on the link between sport and alcohol in Australia, especially in advertising, but also in the culture of binge-drinking that sometimes leads elite sports people to public and private shame. Major sporting codes are working with the federal government to address this.
The effects of alcohol on Indigenous Australians have been disastrous, and Fitzgerald and Jordan's chapter on this is fascinating. Prior to the 1967 referendum which granted Aborigines full citizenship, supplying alcohol to them was often prohibited. Citizenship rights became associated with "drinking rights", with consequences that still bedevil the response to alcohol abuse in Aboriginal communities.
Interestingly, the Aboriginal population includes high numbers of both non-drinkers and people who drink at dangerous levels. 37 per cent have either never drunk or are ex-drinkers, compared to 22 per cent for non-Aborigines.
A further welcome challenge to stereotypes is that only 33 per cent of Aborigines are regular drinkers, compared to 45 per cent of non-Aborigines. But in this group, 68 per cent drink at high-risk levels compared to 11 per cent for non-Aborigines.
Among young and under-age drinkers, ready-to-drink spirits and alcopops are a major concern. In many of them the alcohol cannot be tasted, so they are consumed quickly and in quantity, and have been designed exactly for this.
Wrestling with the demon drink has been part of the Australian story from the beginning. The pendulum has swung too far one way. We are long overdue for a correction.
