people's alcohol action coalition

1. people's alcohol action coalition Presentation to the AMA National Alcohol Summit Canberra, October 2014, #AMAsummit John Boffa Chief Medical Officer Public Health, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Adjunct Assoc Prof, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University 1

2. Alice Springs 1995 public meeting

3. http://www.paac.org.au/

4. Stabbing rate in the Alice (ABC Radio) PM - 4 April 2008 ANNE BARKER: Not even a year ago, Alice Springs was the stabbing capital of the world. Over a seven year period, surgeons at the local hospital treated 1,550 stabbing victims. That's more than 200 a year, or one stabbing every two days.The head of surgery Jacob Ollapallil, says 100 per cent of victims are Aboriginal and more than half are women, many of them stabbed with a kitchen knife to the upper thigh.JACOB OLLAPALLIL: The number of women patients involved, or victims involved, are very high. Most of the studies reported elsewhere, it is usually the victim is a young adult male, but in our case, more than half are female. It's also point to the high incidence of domestic violence in Alice Springs.ANNE BARKER: The huge rate of stabbings coincides directly with the appalling level of alcohol consumption in Central Australia.Drunkenness is the number one factor behind the whole spectrum of violence in Alice Springs - from stabbings to homicides to suicide. 4

5. Darwin revealed as world's broken jaw capital Posted Thu Jan 7, 2010 8:15am AEDT Most of the breaks are caused by drunken assaults. A Northern Territory surgeon says Darwin has the highest rate of broken jaws in the world and that can be attributed mostly to alcohol-related violence. Royal Darwin Hospital surgeon Mahiban Thomas says he was given a "rude shock" when he arrived in Darwin five years ago. Dr Thomas says the hospital sees about 350 cases of broken jaws and noses every year. "(This) puts us at about 17 per 10,000 population, which is well above anywhere else in the world," he said. He says he is very busy and also worried because most of the breaks are caused by drunken assaults. "Only 12 per cent of the trauma patients have not been a victim of an alcohol-related assault.“ 5

6. What price do we pay?

7. Wine cheaper than Coke and water The Daily Telegraph December 12, 2009 WINE is now cheaper than water and Coke, courtesy of a grape glut, a surging dollar and changing tastes. Woolworths' large-format liquor chain Dan Murphy's is selling 82,000 750ml cleanskins at $1.99 apiece. By comparison Woolies charges $2.25 for Pump 750ml water bottles and $3.07 for 600ml of Coca-Cola - equal to $3.84 for 750ml. "In my 15 years in the wine industry I can't remember a time when drinkers enjoyed better value for money," Dan Murphy's merchandise head Steve Donohue said. So how do you sell wine for $1.99? By buying it for as little as 45c/litre. That's the rumour in the Riverina district, where Dan Murphy's is known to have bought the product. 7

8. 1 October 2006: Supply Restrictions Targets takeaway alcohol – approximately 70% of alcohol sold is takeaway alcohol Restricts low priced high alcohol volume products such as cask wine and fortified wine Restricts availability of those products to after 6pm – one person per day Hours of trade – no takeaway sales Monday to Friday until after 2pm Only light beer over the bar before 11:30AM 8

11. Estimated quarterly per capita consumption of pure alcohol by key beverage types, Central Australia, July 2000 – December 2010

12. Hospital separation rates for alcohol-attributable conditions, Alice Springs observed and forecast values post-Q1 2006

15. Sydney Morning Herald Economics Editor

17. Photo Licensing at the point of sale and The Banned Drinkers Register “Alcohol is no ordinary commodity”

18. Figure 1: Alice Springs Emergency Department presentations pre (May 2010–June 2011), during (July 2011–August 2012) and post (September 2012–October 2013) operation of the NT Banned Drinkers Register

19. Figure 1: Admissions for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol, Alice Springs Hospital, during and post-operation of the Banned Drinkers Register

21. Figure 2: Admissions for conditions with an alcohol ætiologic fraction >0.4, Alice Springs Hospital, during and post-operation of the Banned Drinkers Register

22. Temporary Beat Locations

23. Hospital staff have reportedly found their new work conditions “both exciting and rewarding”, the spokesman said. In another positive for the new department, between the end of February and the beginning of April, the average number of alcohol-related Emergency Department presentations almost halved.

24. “The bottom line is that,…… the actual public consumption of alcohol has been very, very low,” he said. “It is absolutely a result of police being stationed outside bottle shops. It has had the most impact of any anti-alcohol initiative in the past 10-20 years. “We have said this loud and clear to a lot of people that it may be controversial (with racial profiling) but there is no denying the effectiveness of the police outside bottle shops. “Public consumption of alcohol is continuing to be bordering on the non-existent now.” Sergeant Bell said Operation Leyland - a focused taskforce monitor licences premises between February 27 to April 2 - achieved impressive results with the number of assaults reducing by 54 per cent, compared to the same period last year.

26. Australian Early Development Index

28. % of children in Normal IQ Range (>84) by Age (longitudinal analysis) Martin, Ramey, & Ramey. 1990. American Journal of Public Health

29. ABC Health and Well Being 2014

30. Priorities for Action • Population-level supply reduction. Especially targeting problem drinkers and vulnerable groups (including young people) • taking action on price MUP and volumetric taxation • reducing trading hours, including for take-away alcohol sales and for late night on-premises trading • reintroducing a form of the successful Banned Drinker Register with photo ID scanning at the point of sale. • Early childhood development programs to break the inter-generational cycle of disadvantage and alcohol abuse. • Effective treatment services • To support these approaches, Australia needs an agreed national data collection and reporting system that will allow monitoring of the effectiveness of programs and policies