10. Alcohol
The impact of territory policies is impacting most negatively in relation to alcohol supply : the rivers of grog still flow from Alice Springs into the region causing death, illness and destruction on a scale that is shocking in a developed country. The most effective strategies according to international research are reducing the availability of alcohol and increasing the cost of the cheapest and most damaging forms of alcohol. The NT Government is unwilling to enact these strategies despite pressure from the remote communities and other stakeholders. CAYLUS has assisted remote community people advocating for these strategies on the direction of our Reference Group, because one of the major underlying causes of inhalant abuse is the alcohol abuse of the older community members.
The NT Licensing Commission restrictions which commenced in Alice Springs in October 2006 prior to the NTER restrictions are further evidence of the value of good alcohol policy. These restrictions, which made damaging grog more difficult to get, resulted in a sustained reduction in hospital presentations and assaults relating to alcohol. They also resulted in an overall reduction in the amount of alcohol consumed in Alice – see attachment 3 “Turn Down the Tap” media kit for details.
The solution is simple : if you want people to drink less alcohol, sell them less. The NT Government implements strategies that have little impact of alcohol sales, and consequently the same amount of alcohol is being sold and consumed with the same disastrous consequences. It appears the NT Government does not have the political will to challenge the alcohol lobby, who do not want a reduction in their sales. As such, the Commonwealth Government may elect to legislate in this matter as part of the revision of the NTER. There is much to gain and little to lose from the National perspective.
This sort of supply reduction action would have more effect than the NTER’s alcohol legislation to date, which created unenforceable laws. Banning alcohol on town camps simply pushed people into other grog camps just over the hills, which further reduced the safety of children caught in that system. Banning alcohol in remote communities was confounding, as it was already banned in the vast majority of remote communities anyway. Neither policy is fully enforceable with the police resources on the ground. The NTER initiative re the collection of the names of people purchasing more than $100 of alcohol seemed very strange given the NT Police statement that they would not have the capacity to do anything with these lists once collected.