The Foundation for Alcohol Research for Education (FARE) provided a submission to the Victorian Government on the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2015-2019.
The Consultation Paper states that the “The next Plan will focus on reducing ill health that is avoidable – that can be prevented or its impact delayed or mitigated”. To do this the Plan needs to ensure that it adequately addresses the risk factors that cause ill health, including alcohol.
Recommendations
Given the scale of alcohol-related disease and injury in Victoria, it is critical that the Plan effectively and directly address the prevention of alcohol harms. This should begin with including the reduction of alcohol harms as part of the Plan’s priorities for 2015-19 and long term objectives, supported by clear evidence-based policies. The following measures need to be considered to ensure the prevention of alcohol harms is a priority within Plan:
- Tighter controls on the density of liquor licences in Victoria.
- Further restrictions to the hours that alcohol is available for sale for both on-licence premises (bars, pubs and clubs) and off-licence premises (bottle shops).
- Apply liquor promotion controls for on- and off-licence premises with equal weight.
- Ban alcohol promotions from appearing on shopper dockets.
- Restrictions on price-based promotions, such as bulk purchase discounts, and other promotional activities and practices which encourage the consumption of alcohol in risky volumes.
- Prohibition of alcohol promotions and advertisements from appearing on public property (such as trams, trains and buses).
