Release of study into alcohol-related assaults and incidents

14/12/95

A comprehensive study examining alcohol consumption in relation to assaults, road crashes, alcohol-related injury and illness was released today by Health Minister Graham Kierath.

The study was co-ordinated by Curtin University's National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse (NCRPDA).

Entitled 'Measurement of Alcohol Problems for Policy' (MAPP), the study reviewed alcohol consumption in 130 metropolitan and regional areas with the aim of enabling prevention strategies to be better targeted, monitored and evaluated.

MAPP looked at the impact of alcohol consumption on a tightly-defined regional basis and identified a set of benchmarks to measure the effectiveness of prevention strategies.

"The study was funded by the Western Australian Health Department and the Traffic Board of WA and has the potential to make a major contribution to future policy on the management of alcohol-related problems, both on a State and Federal level," Mr Kierath said.

"I have sent details to my counterparts in other States and to the Federal Minister for Health and invited them to consult with Professor Tim Stockwell and his team on the report's findings."

Professor Stockwell said information provided by the Liquor Licensing Division of the WA Office of Racing and Gaming had enabled the study team to draw a detailed picture of alcohol sales by individual licensed premises and by type of beverage.

"It is now possible to 'track' alcohol consumption and related problems at State, regional and local levels," he said.

"These alcohol-harm problems include acute illness and injury as well as levels of night-time assaults, drink driving offences and crashes.

"We can provide policy-makers with a clear benchmark to measure the effectiveness of steps taken to reduce these problems, and, because we are basing the program on readily-available data, done at a low cost."

Professor Stockwell said a key finding of the first stage of the research was the fact that wine, frequently portrayed as a 'drink of moderation', was the most strongly implicated in alcohol-related problems.

"By contrast, low alcohol beers have an overall impact even lower than their pro-rata alcohol content," he said.

The study recommended an immediate increase in taxes on cheap cask wine and a reduction in taxes on low-alcohol beers.

"An examination of the Federal taxes on various drinks shows there is a powerful incentive for people to drink cask wines in preference to other alcohol drinks," Mr Kierath said.

"The tax on beers and bottled wines is around 25 cents per standard drink. For cask wines the figure is an astonishingly low three cents."

Media contact: Caroline Lacy 481 2133

Sue Robertson, Curtin University 351 2000