Researchers
Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education
Summary
On 2 October 2014, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) wrote to the leaders of the four major political parties contesting the Victorian state election, the Victorian branches of the Liberal Party of Australia (Liberals), the National Party of Australia (Nationals), the Australian Labor Party (Labor) and the Victorian Greens (Greens). The letter posed ten questions for the political parties on alcohol policy:
- Will your Party support an alcohol screening and brief intervention program for emergency departments?
- Will your Party support a ban on alcohol shopper dockets?
- Will your Party support banning activities and practices which encourage irresponsible drinking, such as bulk discounting?
- Will your Party support restricting alcohol advertising from places and times where children are exposed, such as public transport?
- Will your Party support maintaining and extending the freeze on granting new licenses after 1am to Melbourne suburbs outside the inner city and beyond 2015?
- Will your Party support the introduction of a 3am ‘last drinks’ for pubs and clubs?
- Will your Party support the introduction of a 10pm closing time for all packaged liquor sales?
- Will your Party support tighter controls on the availability of packaged liquor licenses?
- Will your Party support the development of an action plan to reduce alcohol-related family and domestic violence?
- Will your Party support a public education campaign aimed at reducing alcohol harms?
Outcomes
Responses were received by all parties and were categorised as ‘supported in full’, ‘some action committed’ or ‘no commitment’.
The Greens were most likely to support the policies outlined in FARE’s ten questions (8/10), followed by both the Coalition (1/10) and Labor (1/10).
Labor was most likely to indicate ‘no commitment’ for policies (7/10), followed by the Coalition (5/10) and the Greens (0/10).
The policies that the Coalition and Labor were most likely to indicate ‘no commitment’ for, were those that related to restricting the promotion and availability of alcohol through reducing trading hours.
