Australia: the healthiest country by 2020
National Preventative Health Strategy – the roadmap for action

Alcohol

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Table of contents

First phase
Second phase
Third phase


First phase (2010–2013)

1. Improve the safety of people who drink and those around them
  • States and territories to harmonise liquor control regulations by developing and implementing best practice nationally consistent approaches to the policing and enforcement of liquor control laws, including
    • Outlet opening times and outlet density
    • Accreditation requirements prior to the issuing of a liquor licence
    • Late-night and other high-risk outlets
    • Responsible serving of alcohol and training model
  • Increase available resources to develop and implement best practice for policing and enforcement of liquor control laws and regulations, relating to:
    • Optimal levels of enforcement of drink-drinking laws
    • Intelligence-led, outlet-focused systems of policing and enforcement
    • Annual review of liquor licences as part of annual licence renewal process
    • Demerit points penalty systems for licensees who breach liquor control laws, with meaningful and graduated penalties depending on the severity and frequency of the offence
    • Monitor and report on enforcement of legislation
  • Develop the business case for a new COAG national partnership agreement on policing and enforcement of liquor control laws and regulations
2. Increase public awareness and reshape attitudes to promote a safer drinking culture in Australia
  • Develop and implement a comprehensive and sustained social marketing and public education strategy at levels likely to have significant impact, building on the National Binge Drinking Campaign and state campaigns to:
    • Help build a national consensus on healthy alcohol consumption
    • Raise awareness and understanding of NHMRC guidelines
    • De-normalise intoxication
    • Raise awareness of the longer term risks and harmful consequences of excessive alcohol consumption
3. Regulate alcohol promotions
  • In a staged approach, phase out alcohol promotions from times and placements which have high exposure to young people aged up to 25 years, including:
    • Advertising during live sport broadcasts
    • Advertising during high adolescent/child viewing
    • Sponsorship of sport and cultural events
  • Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the voluntary approach to alcohol promotions agreed by the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy in April 2009
  • Introduce independent regulation through legislation if the co-regulatory approaches are not effective in phasing out alcohol promotions from times and placements which have high exposure to young people up to 25 years
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4. Reform alcohol taxation and pricing arrangements to discourage harmful drinking
  • Commission independent modelling under the auspices of Health, Treasury and an industry panel, for a rationalised tax and excise regime for alcohol that discourages harmful consumption and promotes safer consumption
  • Develop the public interest case for minimum (floor) price of alcohol to discourage harmful consumption and promote safe consumption
  • Direct a proportion of revenue from alcohol taxation towards initiatives that prevent alcohol-related societal harm
5. Improve the health of Indigenous Australians
  • Increase access to health services for Indigenous people who are drinking at harmful levels through:
    • Providing resources to primary healthcare providers
    • Training of staff, including Indigenous health workers
    • Expanding both community-based and residential alcohol treatment programs
    • Increasing health service capacity to facilitate coordinated case management of alcohol-dependent persons
  • Support local initiatives in Indigenous communities, including:
    • Restricting the physical availability of products
    • Reducing the number, density and/or opening hours of licensed premises in areas of high alcohol-related harm
    • Strengthening enforcement of the Responsible Serving of Alcohol provisions
    • Establishing local groups of senior Indigenous men and women to promote greater individual and family responsibility in relation to alcohol
  • Establish a reliable, regular and sustained system for the collection and analysis of population statistics on alcohol and drug use among Indigenous people
  • Establish and fund a multi-site trial of alcohol diversion programs
6. Strengthen, skill and support primary healthcare to help people in making healthy choices
  • Enhance the role of primary healthcare organisations in preventing and responding to alcohol-related health problems
  • Develop a more comprehensive network of alcohol-related referral services and programs to support behaviour change in primary healthcare
  • Increase access to primary healthcare services and improve health outcomes for hard-to-reach disadvantaged individuals who are at risk of alcohol-related health problems
7. Build healthy children and families
  • Protect the health and safety of children and adolescent brain development by:
    • Developing nationally consistent principles and practices regarding the supply of alcohol to minors without parental/guardian consent
    • Promoting informed community discussion about the appropriate age for young people to begin drinking
  • Support parents in managing alcohol issues at all stages of their children’s development through community-level approaches
  • Measure the impact of harmful consumption of alcohol on families and children
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8. Strengthen the evidence base
  • Develop a system for nationally consistent collection and management of alcohol wholesale sales data to inform key alcohol policy developments and evaluations
  • NPA to define a set of essential national indicators on alcohol consumption and health and social impacts

Second phase (2014–2017)

  • Monitor the implementation of approaches to the policing and enforcement of liquor control laws
  • Implement and monitor the implementation of the national partnership agreement on policing and enforcement of liquor control laws and regulations
  • Monitor and evaluate the first phase of the social marketing strategy
  • Develop and implement the new phase of the comprehensive, sustained social marketing strategy
  • Continue the phasing out of alcohol promotions from times and placements which have high exposure to young people aged up to 25 years
  • Introduce a new pricing regime, including minimum price, based on work completed in the first phase
  • Monitor and evaluate the impact of the new pricing regime
  • Monitor and evaluate access to health services for Indigenous people and the generation of new local initiatives
  • Expand and scale up successful local initiatives for Indigenous Australians
  • Monitor and evaluate the role of primary healthcare organisations in dealing with alcohol-related health problems
  • Report on progress in building alcohol referral services and programs; and increase in access to disadvantaged groups
  • Monitor age and initiation of drinking alcohol
  • Review progress in support to parents in managing teenage drinking behaviours
  • Improve the utilisation of key datasets on the harm to drinkers and harm to others
  • Expand the collection of patterns of drinking data to include place of drinking, duration of drinking occasion, and reasons for drinking
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Third phase (2018–2020)

  • Evaluate outcomes of the national partnership agreement on policing and enforcement
  • Develop new approaches to the policing and enforcement of liquor control laws, based on evaluated outcomes
  • Monitor and evaluate the second phase of the social marketing strategy
  • Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of legislative approaches if implemented
  • Identify any additional measures required to address alcohol promotion across other media sources
  • Refine the new pricing regime, including minimum price, based on work completed in the first and second phases
  • Evaluate progress in increasing access to health services and growth in quality and scale of local initiatives during the first two phases
  • Refine and redevelop primary healthcare systems for the prevention and treatment of alcohol-related health problems
  • Implement new approaches to protect children and adolescents from alcohol-related harm based on experience from phases one and two

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