Australia - voters support alcohol control measures while alcohol industry “tells lies” about fetal alcohol problems

Australian voters are more supportive of alcohol control measures than might have been supposed, but the alcohol industry is less honest about alcohol harm than might have been hoped. These are the messages promoted recently by the leading Australian advocacy body, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE).

The results of a national-wide opinion poll released by FARE shows that regardless of voting intentions, a majority of Australians perceive alcohol as a problem in Australia and support policies such as health warning labels and restrictions on alcohol advertising that would reduce alcohol-related harms.

The Poll

The polling found that a majority of Australians (76%) believe that Australia has a problem with alcohol, a majority view also held by Coalition voters (75%), Australian Labour Party voters (79%) and Green voters (81%).

A majority of voters from each of the three major parties were also in agreement that more needs to be done to reduce alcohol-related harms, led by Coalition and ALP voters (77%) and 71% of Green Voters. 67% of Green voters support a ban on alcohol advertising on television before 8.30pm, followed closely by a majority of Coalition voters (65%) and ALP voters (62%).

FARE Chief Executive, Michael Thorn commented that the broad support among voters from all three major parties for policies that would reduce alcohol harms, made continued government inaction even more puzzling. He said the poll results reflected poorly on the effectiveness of governments around the country to reduce alcohol-related harms significantly, and he urged the Commonwealth Government to act decisively.

“This is not a problem without a solution. The Commonwealth needs to fund an on-going and comprehensive national public education campaign to promote Australia’s official alcohol guidelines; it needs to remove the loophole that allows for alcohol advertising to be televised before 8:30pm; and it needs to introduce mandatory health warning labels for alcohol products sold in Australia,” he said.

In Australia, responsibility for alcohol policy is shared between the federal government and the individual states, and Michael Thorn added that the State Governments also have a major role to play in reducing alcohol-related harms.

He said that FARE called on the New South Wales Government to maintain the freeze on licencing in various parts of the territory, to provide support to local communities that want to take greater control over the way alcohol is marketed and sold, and introduce measures to stop the prolific discounting and promotions by the big alcohol retailers.

A majority of Green voters (67%) support health warning labels on alcohol products, as do ALP voters (64%) and Coalition voters (60%).

There were some notable differences in voting intentions. Of significant note, the polling found that Coalition voters (86%) were slightly more pessimistic than their ALP (77%) and Green (73%) counterparts, in believing that alcohol related problems will remain the same or get worse over the next five to ten years.

Mr Thorn believes the polling contains a valuable message for all three major parties.

“As a nation, we can no longer afford to ignore the issue of alcohol reform. This is not an issue to be endlessly debated and never addressed. As we draw closer to a Federal election, the major parties need to take note that a majority of Australians, irrespective of political persuasion, want real action now,” Michael Thorn Mr Thorn said.

Meanwhile, a detailed analysis of the alcohol industry’s submissions to a Parliamentary Inquiry has exposed “a raft of false, misleading and unfounded claims”.

‘Lies’ Exposed

The damning finding was announced as alcohol industry representatives met in Canberra to present to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), and it called into doubt the veracity of the industry claims.

FARE analysed four alcohol industry submissions from the Winemakers Federation of Australia (WFA), the Brewers Association of Australia and New Zealand Inc (Brewers), the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia (DSICA) and the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). The analysis found that, between them, the alcohol industry bodies made a total of ten false or misleading claims regarding FASD, and the effectiveness of interventions to prevent FASD.

FARE commented that the industry submissions demonstrated a total lack of commitment to preventing FASD, two of the industry submissions even talking down the need for action, suggesting current activities to prevent FASD were sufficient. FARE Chief Executive, Michael Thorn said it was crucial that none of the industry’s unsubstantiated claims went unchallenged.

“This is not simply ‘claim’ and ‘counter claim’. This is about separating the facts from the industry fiction. The alcohol industry is so hell bent on putting profit ahead of public health that it’s prepared to bend or even disregard the truth completely, to suit its own agenda,” Mr Thorn said.

FARE is highly critical of the alcohol industry bodies that claim pregnancy warning labels recommending abstinence from alcohol may result in anxiety among pregnant women and even lead to termination.

“This is scare mongering at its worst. There is not one shred of empirical evidence to support that position. The alcohol industry wishes to propagate the myth that it is somehow risky to ensure consumers are appropriately informed of the potential harms from its product. The truth of the matter is the risk they are really concerned about is to their own bottom line,” Mr Thorn said.

The alcohol industry used its submissions to promote the voluntary, industry-funded DrinkWise labels, which have long been criticised by the public health sector for being small, weak and ambiguous. On this issue, the alcohol industry’s position also runs counter to the current evidence-base, which states that labels are most effective when they are mandatory, comprise of both symbol and text, are applied prominently to the front of the product and include a range of specific messages.

A recent assessment of the evidence-base regarding alcohol warning labels by the Parliamentary Library stated that such labels should be arresting and found it was debateable whether the DrinkWise labels met that criteria.

Mr Thorn says the alcohol industry submissions have added nothing to the FASD policy landscape.

“FASD is the most common preventable cause of birth defects in Australia; a lifetime condition, with a devastating impact. Yet the alcohol industry would have you believe that it’s not a significant problem. In their submissions to the Inquiry, the alcohol industry hides behind false claims and uses the inquiry as a vehicle to promote its own vested interest,” Mr Thorn said.