Alcohol and Violence

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
11 Apr 2010

Most Australians do not want to be dubbed as wowsers.  But I also suspect that this same huge majority cannot understand why hotel bars need to open through the early hours of the morning. 

The Australian Medical Association, the N.S.W. Police Association, the nurses and ambulance officers want the sale of alcohol curtailed after midnight to reduce the number of victims from violent assault by intoxicated offenders. 

If nobody was being hurt except the drunkards, civil liberty considerations might incline the public to overlook the personal health costs to the victims themselves.

But this is not the situation.  Even when we exclude domestic violence (where alcohol also plays a damaging role), violent incidents fueled by alcohol in New South Wales increased from 15,398 in 2004 to 19,735 in 2008.  Alcohol contributes to 70 per cent of the assaults on police.  Ambulance officers and police who have to be on duty for the four or five hours after midnight are now exposed to unacceptable levels of violence.  Fact sheets from the recent past prove that practical steps can be taken to lighten this burden.

Evidence from Newcastle CBD shows a 29 per cent drop in the number of assaults after dark between 2005 and 2009 because a number of restrictions were introduced.  While hotels could stay open to 3.00a.m, newcomers were locked out from 1.00a.m., and no strong drinks can be served after 10.00p.m.  This mild medicine produced significant improvements.

Some argue that only 8 per cent of the hotels cause 80 per cent of the trouble and the clubs claim that while they have two thirds of the business carried out in licensed premises, they are the venues for only 14 per cent of alcohol induced violence.  During the period when violent incidents increased by 37 per cent, the number of violent incidents in clubs decreased.

Self regulation by the hotel industry would be the best way to go forward and the increasing use of illegal drugs ranging from cannabis (often many times stronger than it was a quarter century ago) to Ice has made this grim situation much worse.

Unless the government starts to grapple more effectively with these factors the situation will continue to deteriorate.  The early hours of the morning are the worst time for destroying property and the spread of ugly graffiti.  Why not give police on the beat extra powers to nip trouble in the bud?

We should not be pretending that the situation is not getting worse.