An alcohol fuelled Rugby World Cup

It is very hard to understand how anyone can support the liquor licensing aspect of this Rugby World Cup (Empowering) Bill without dissociating themselves from the harm that will inevitably result.

The Law Commission has just completed the most extensive review of alcohol use in this country’s history. It concluded that New Zealand has a major problem with excessive alcohol use and that one of the key drivers of the harm is the “unbridled commercialisation of alcohol”.

The Law Commission’s recommendations closely follow the international evidence on how a society can reduce its alcohol-related problems, which has been summarized as the 5+ Solution:
1. Raise alcohol prices
2. Raise the purchase age
3. Reduce alcohol accessibility
4. Reduce marketing and advertising
5. Increase drink-driving countermeasures
PLUS: Increase treatment opportunities for heavy drinkers

It is therefore tragic irony that the first formal alcohol response of the government following the tabling of the Law Commission’s final report is to introduce legislation that will liberalise alcohol supply even further and therefore enhance the country’s alcohol-related problems.

Although the provisions of the Bill cover a relatively short period of time, seven and a half weeks in contemporary New Zealand produces an astounding amount of alcohol-related harm. For example during this time there is likely to be:

- over 70 serious or fatal injury traffic crashes related to alcohol
- about 150 alcohol-related deaths (half from injury representing 2,500 years of life lost)
- up to 400 children conceived who will subsequently be born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
- over 10,000 physical and sexual assaults related to alcohol

This Bill will not only perpetuate this array of serious damage but will likely worsen it.

Not acting immediately to prevent the torrent of alcohol-related harm that currently exists will be like BP postponing the attempts to cap the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico - madness or callous disregard for the health and safety of New Zealanders in favour of the alcohol industry? The weasel words in the Bill “ensure that public health and safety are protected as far as is reasonably practicable” have a hollow and cynical ring to them.

The best way to increase alcohol damage in a society is to do the opposite of the 5+ Solution:
1. lower alcohol prices
2. lower the purchase age
3. increase alcohol accessibility
4. increase marketing and advertising
5. reduce drink-driving countermeasures
PLUS: reduce treatment opportunities for heavy drinkers

This Bill will make alcohol a lot more accessible and enhance the marketing and advertising of alcohol. Increasing the number of outlets will increase competition and likely result in cheaper alcohol prices.

By allowing for a fast-track liquor licensing process, the government is actively supporting the heavy drinking culture and encouraging increased consumption of alcohol in New Zealand. It is going out of its way to reinforce the message of the alcohol industry that alcohol and sport go together like hand and glove. It is also taking the virulent meme currently infecting New Zealand that “social events aren’t proper events without plenty of alcohol” to new international heights - “rugby world cups aren’t proper events without plenty of alcohol”.

Tobacco and sport used to go together like hand and glove in New Zealand until we all started waking up to the immense harm of tobacco smoking pushed along by the psychopathic greed of the tobacco industry. Thanks to the Law Commission, New Zealand is now waking up to the immense harm from our heavy drinking culture driven along by exactly the same tactics and activities of the alcohol industry.

There is still a chance that sense might prevail and the government will enact a good portion of the 5+ Solution to make New Zealand a better country to live in. However, the liquor provisions of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill seriously risk etching the heavy drinking culture even deeper into the national psyche next year, making the necessary changes required even harder to achieve at this time of historic opportunity. If the government wanted to make the heavy drinking culture worse, it couldn’t do much better than enact the liquor provisions of this Bill.

It is likely that in the future we will be just as astonished at the PM’s current enthusiasm for Heineken’s “Party Central” as we are now that Doctors used to actively promote Camel cigarettes.

Ordinary New Zealanders are not going to be empowered by this Bill, the alcohol industry will be. And at the end of the day front-line workers will be picking up the pieces, funded by the taxpayer.

Professor of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine
Director, National Addiction Centre
University of Otago, Christchurch.

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