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Professor Hall questions wisdom of alcopop refund
Tuesday, 31 March 2009DrinkWise, the controversial body that claims to promote a ‘safe drinking culture’ and is backed by the alcohol industry, will receive the refund of money collected through a 70% tax increase on ready-mixed ‘alcopop’ beverages imposed last April. The Senate last week rejected the Federal Government’s move to make the tax permanent.
Professor Hall, a leading expert in drug and alcohol research and Professor of Public Policy at the School of Population Health, said that giving the funds to DrinkWise was questionable given the organisation’s strong links to the alcohol industry and its preference for ineffective strategies for reducing alcohol-related harm.
“The policies advocated by DrinkWise, such as media and school-based campaigns, sound plausible but are proven to be ineffective in reducing key indicators of alcohol-related harm,” said Professor Hall.
“If DrinkWise receives these funds we will see high-profile educations campaigns urging us to drink responsibly and no reductions in any of these indicators of alcohol-related harm. Drink Wise is an attempt by the alcohol industry to be seen to be ‘doing something” while averting serious consideration of public health policies that by reducing binge drinking will adversely affect their bottom line.”
Six of DrinkWise’s 11 board members are representatives from the alcohol industry.
Professor Hall said that international evidence shows that effective ways of reducing alcohol-related harm involve taxing higher alcohol beverages, restricting the availability of alcohol, reducing the density of outlets selling alcohol and reducing the trading hours of these outlets.
He also said that random breath testing, enforcing licensing laws and penalising outlets that serve intoxicated customers are also proven to be effective in reducing the harm caused by excessive alcohol consumption.
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