RESPONSIBLE SUPPLY OF LIQUOR AND CRIME
IN SOCIETY

The vast majority of Australians consume alcohol. It serves an important role in facilitating many social gatherings and has health benefits when consumed in moderation.
  As with most things, overindulgence in alcohol products can create serious health and societal problems. The issues associated with crime and alcohol consumption is one of those issues that can be controversial and it is possible to engage in never ending debate on whether alcohol causes someone or contributes to someone committing a crime.
  There is extensive data available on alcohol consumption in Australia. This data, however, ranges dramatically in its usefulness through highly varying degrees of quality and substantial differences in methodologies. In fact, the release of Professor McAllister’s research on the quality of consumption research, in the lead up to the recent Alcohol Summit in NSW, highlights the degree of variance that exists and reinforces the need for clear, transparent research to be conducted in the future.
  The spirits industry is a multi-billion dollar, international sector that does not support regulatory responses based on anecdotal or flawed research into how best to regulate alcohol in Australia. The industry believes that the fundamental aim of regulators must be to develop meaningful research investigating proposed methods in addressing alcohol regulation in this country.
  Statistics that suggest alcohol is to blame for causing crime is a vast oversimplification of a complex social issue. We as an industry believe that alcohol contributes significantly to the overall well being of society as well as employing thousands of people in every town and region in Australia.
  It has been well established by countless researchers that the best predictor of violent behaviour and crime is a person having a history of violence and crime. There is a propensity for people to show signs of non-conformity and violence from an early age. It appears, through longitudinal studies, that an aggressive pre-school student is likely to turn out to be an aggressive teenager, and in turn an aggressive adult.
  In a recent report conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology on the Indicators of Aggressive Behavior it was identified that there are a number of risk factors for aggressive and self-destructive behaviour including: having a history of violent behaviour, being male, being a young adult, having experienced difficulties in childhood, including inadequate parenting, troubled relationships within the family and low levels of school achievement, having problems of psychotropic substance abuse, especially problematic alcohol use, having severe mental illness and being in situations conducive to self-directed or interpersonal violence, including having access to firearms.
  It is an excuse for society to blame the alcohol industry for this social phenomena. Ironically, violent offenders have often been characterised as light to moderate drinkers that ‘occasionally drink to excess’. Likewise, extreme levels of consumption of alcohol have an incapacitating effect that will render a person unable to commit a crime during the state of extreme intoxication.
  For perspective, we believe it is important to place the impact alcohol has in terms of total burden on society when compared to other factors. In the Australian Alcohol Guidelines it is indicated that harm associated with alcohol consumption accounted for 4.9 per cent of the total burden and disease in Australia in 1996, however, in addition the protective effect of alcohol reduced the burden by 2.8 per cent, resulting in the real burden to society being in the order of 2.1 per cent. Compare this burden with other influences and the alcohol issue can begin to be put in context. For example, smoking accounts for 9.7 per cent of the burden, physical inactivity for 6.7 per cent, hypertension 5.4 per cent, obesity 4.3 per cent, inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption 2.7 per cent and illicit drugs 1.8 per cent.
  The industry still believes the issues to be serious and we continue to work tirelessly to develop innovative products that are marketed in a socially responsible manner, however, these above mentioned statistics do provide a context for regulators.
  The industry is proud of its achievements in effectively regulating and controlling the responsible manufacturing and supply of liquor in Australian society.
  We as an industry, however, can only accept a certain amount of responsibility when it comes to individuals’ own discretionary actions. The Australian Institute of Criminology has recommended in the past that consideration be given to look at reducing the availability of cheap forms of high alcohol content beverages such as cask wine and calibrate their price to be in line with their alcohol content. As the spirits sector, we wholeheartedly agree with this proposal. We understand that there are also numerous health lobbies calling for the same thing, including the AMA and other Drug and Alcohol agencies.
  The industry is committed to ensuring that crime and violence is not condoned. Excuses such as ‘I was drunk, I couldn’t help it, I didn’t know what I was doing, I don’t remember’ further encourage people to drink at dangerous levels while knowing that if something goes wrong there is a valid excuse waiting.
  The best long-term strategy to achieve a reduction in alcohol related harm is through education, partnerships and a consistent approach. Radical changes often mooted by minority groups will simply not address the core problem and will usually only serve to disadvantage the majority that consume alcohol wisely.
  There is a need for closer partnerships between government, industry and the local community in addressing the issues associated with alcohol consumption. We do not believe that a ‘them and us’ attitude will result in positive outcomes for the community at large.
  We believe that the most effective ways in which to achieve real, long-term, effective outcomes for encouraging responsible drinking patterns is through industry and government partnerships. The industry has demonstrated its willingness to be actively involved as well as its capacity to achieve real outcomes that are in the interests of the general community. It is through forums such as these that we believe the modern age of alcohol education, collaboration and partnership is achievable.