Submission to the NSW Inquiry into the provision of alcohol to minors

FARE’s submission to the New South Wales (NSW) Legislative Assembly Social Policy Committee Inquiry into the provision of alcohol to minors proposes a comprehensive approach to preventing harmful alcohol consumption in NSW. This approach examines four key areas of state-based alcohol policy: supply of alcohol to minors, trading hours, outlet density, and evaluation and data collection and makes 12 recommendations for the NSW Government.

Recommendations

1. That the NSW Government introduce ‘irresponsible supply’ laws to NSW, stating that the lawful supply of alcohol to minors should be conducted in a safe and responsible manner.
2. That the NSW Government works with other states and territories to develop nationally consistent secondary supply laws that are based on current best-practice in Australia.
3. That the NSW Government develops and implements a comprehensive public education campaign that informs the general public of the state legislation regarding supplying alcohol to minors. This campaign should incorporate the lessons learnt from the evaluation of the NSW Police’s ‘Supply Means Supply’ campaign.
4. That the NSW Government introduce a 12 month statewide trial based on the Newcastle alcohol restrictions, including:
   Introducing a common 3.00am closing time for all pubs and clubs with extended trading license conditions across NSW;
   Applying lockouts at all extended trading licensed premises from 1.00am; Prohibiting the sale of shots, mixed drinks with more than 30ml of alcohol, ready mixed drinks stronger than five per cent alcohol by volume after 10.00pm; and
   Prohibiting the sale of more than four drinks to any patron at one time and a requirement to provide free water stations on every bar.
5. The trial should be independently evaluated to ascertain the social and economic effects of these trading controls. The data collection requirements for this independent evaluation should be in place from the commencement of the 12 month trial.
6. That the NSW Government adopts a state-wide moratorium of late-night alcohol licensed premises trading after midnight.
7. That the NSW Government introduces a risk-based licensing fee structure that considers the trading hours of the licensed venue.
8. That the NSW Government extends the freeze on the provision of liquor licences in the City of Sydney.
9. That the NSW Government introduces cumulative impact and cluster control policies for the determination of new liquor licence applications in the NSW Liquor Act 2007.
10. That the NSW Government considers establishing and enforcing saturation zones in areas that are identified as already having large numbers of liquor licences.
11. That the NSW Government develops an evaluation framework for the assessment of all future alcohol-related policies.
12. That the NSW Government mandate the collection of alcohol sales data in NSW and contribute the data to the National Alcohol Sales Data Project.