Background Briefing: "The big binge"

Di Martin | ABC Radio National | 26 August 2012

More pubs and more bars, open for more hours, more extreme binge drinking, more extreme violence and more hospital admissions! What is being done to stem the alcohol tide? Di Martin investigates.

Listen to the program here. 

Police chief pushes for bottle shop clampdown

Sean Nicholls | SMH | May 14, 2012



Domestic violence is the "iceberg" of excessive drinking ... NSW Police Comissioner Andrew Scipione. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

THE Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, has questioned the lack of regulation of purchases from bottle shops and linked the easy availability of take-away alcohol to stubbornly high rates of domestic violence.

The issue will be examined, at Mr Scipione's request, by a new alcohol policy working group comprising senior police and bureaucrats who will present options to the state government.

The Herald can reveal that the group, formed this year, is conducting a comprehensive review of the alcohol licensing system in response to an offer by the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, last year to give police whatever support they needed to tackle alcohol-related violence.

The group will also examine the concentration of outlets, which it believes is a critical issue for alcohol policy.

In an interview about measures the police are taking to combat alcohol-related violence, Mr Scipione said the numbers of alcohol-related assaults of a non-domestic nature had been falling significantly for the past few years.

''The bit that is not falling as much is the domestic violence, where alcohol is a factor. That's the frightening bit,'' he said.

''Of course, that's predominantly being fed through takeaway bottle shops. I think it's worth looking at the impact and, necessarily, the sort of policy we might need to develop to inform government in this area.''

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data shows that between 2007 and 2011, the average annual rate of alcohol-related domestic violence fell 2.6 per cent, compared with a 5.3 per cent drop in other alcohol-related assaults.

Mr Scipione said the visible effects of excessive drinking on weekends and at big events were the tip of the issue but domestic violence was emerging as the ''iceberg'' of alcohol policy.

''That's what worries me - when there are incentives given to people to come in and fill up the car [with alcohol but] if you wanted to buy it over the bar you would have severe restrictions,'' Mr Scipione said.

''In this situation you can go and fill the car up and as quickly as you can throw it down your throat you can come back the next day and fill it up again.

''There is no responsibility in this and by its nature there's not, because it's something that's done in private. But what we do know is that it's causing enormous damage, particularly to women and children.''

The commissioner quoted a national poll conducted for the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation, published last month, which showed 69 per cent of adults supported a ban on alcohol advertising on television before 8.30pm.

Acknowledging the issue of advertising was largely a federal one, Mr Scipione still said there were concerns with the marketing done by bottle shops.

''I know there's a problem, at least in my mind, when I've got a brochure that gets shoved into my letterbox at home and it shows me I can buy a can of beer effectively cheaper than I can go downstairs here at lunchtime and buy a can of Coke,'' he said.

The working group, which meets fortnightly, comprises representatives from the Attorney-General's Department and the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing as well as the commander of drug and alcohol co-ordination with the NSW Police, Superintendent Patrick Paroz, and the commander of major events and incidents, Assistant Commissioner Alan Clarke.

Mr Paroz said the group was examining licensing as ''the biggest-ticket issue'' and doing research into venue and outlet density as ''another critical issue''.

Mr Scipione said research showed venue density, trading hours and the strength of alcohol served, were key factors in alcohol-related violence.

''I think that there are some locations where there are good questions and there is good reason to ask these questions.

''All the research tells us that if you lower the density in these really highly dense locations then you will see a reduction in associated violence.''

NT alcohol laws 'don't go far enough'

Jennifer Lush | SBS Radio | 24 February 2012 




The NT government is hailing the results of its measures to combat alcohol abuse, but it's being urged to do more.

The Northern Territory government says data on alcohol-related assaults over the past six months shows new reforms are working.

The Territory government introduced the 'Enough is Enough' legislation in July last year, which included a Banned Drinkers Register and a Special Substance Misuse Assessment and Referral to Treatment court.

Dr John Boffa from the People's Alcohol Action Coalition says the initial results do appear positive.

But he told Jennifer Lush more needs to be done.

Listen to interview here

Breath test ban forces other changes to bail rules

Paul Bibby | SMH | February 18, 2012



NSW Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson ... confirmed that he had sent a copy of the Supreme Court decision to magistrates across the state. Photo: Brendan Esposito

THE impact of the Supreme Court ruling against random breath tests as a condition of bail has spread through the NSW court system and NSW Police, with at least one other common bail condition also in doubt.

The Herald revealed yesterday that several magistrates and police in western NSW have been ordering people charged with alcohol-related offences to submit to random breath tests to ensure that they are not breaching their bail conditions by drinking.

Known as ''alcohol bail'', it was not specific to driving and few if any qualifications or restrictions were placed on it.

Officers did not have to reasonably suspect that the alleged offender was drunk and there was no limit to the number of times a person could be tested.

Last Friday, the NSW Supreme Court Justice, Peter Garling, ruled the condition unlawful, finding that it was not in keeping with the main reasons bail is imposed, namely for law enforcement, protection of the community or an individual, promoting the rehabilitation of the accused, and ensuring that people show up to court.

The broader implications of the judgment are now rippling across the court system and police force.

The NSW Chief Magistrate, Judge Graeme Henson, confirmed yesterday that he had sent a copy of the decision to magistrates across the state.

It is understood that he also sent a memo informing magistrates of the potential dangers of so-called ''proof provisions'' within bail conditions. These are provisions requiring alleged offenders to prove that they are not breaching their conditions for bail.

The judgment may spell the end of a common curfew condition where alleged offenders are required to present themselves whenever a police officer comes to their home.

The Aboriginal Legal Service and Legal Aid are among organisations that have objected to the condition on the grounds that it has an unreasonable impact on people's lives, particularly within the indigenous community.

''These conditions have the effect in the community of forcing people out of bed at all hours to come to the door,'' one of the principal legal officers at the Aboriginal Legal Service, Jeremy Styles, said.

''And they are often applied to children.''

Following Justice Garling's judgment and the memo from Judge Henson, several magistrates and judges have deleted the ''present to police'' curfew requirement from the bail conditions of alleged offenders.

This includes cases in Bathurst, Broken Hill and the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.

When a ''present to police'' condition came before the Deputy Chief Magistrate, Jane Culver, in Sydney's Downing Centre local court on Wednesday, she said: ''The decision [by Justice Garling] in Lawson and Dunlevy is against any such condition remaining in place''.

The impact of Justice Garling's decision is also being felt across the NSW Police Force.

A western NSW police source said that it ''had the potential to change operations of the entire organisation''.

The former NSW director of public prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, said that Justice Garling's decision was underpinned by the need to protect people's rights.

Despair grips the children of the Dreaming

Russell Skelton | The Age | February 11, 2012

IT WAS a seemingly routine day in a thriving Arnhem Land township located on a bay facing the sparkling Arafura Sea. Northern Territory MP Marion Scrymgour had flown to the unnamed Aboriginal and islander community of 2000 to meet constituents, listen to grievances, and relay them to the powers that be in Darwin. ''I was walking from the council office to the health clinic when I saw all these people running, screaming and calling out.''

She stopped a panicked passer-by to ask what had happened and was answered by a swift gesture: a hand passing across the neck. ''It did not dawn on me at first what that gesture meant. Then somebody from the clinic said a girl had hanged herself. When I heard that she was 11, I thought, what is happening to our people and families? What is it that leads a young person to give up all hope and see no alternative in life but to leave?''

Flown by air ambulance to Darwin, the girl died in hospital after life support was turned off.

The circumstances of her death remain a mystery for most. Police requested that details not be publicised and the Coroner is yet to publish a finding - he may never do so, because not all suicides in the territory are subject to coronial investigation. Police reports are often accepted at face value and passed onto grieving families.

Scrymgour, who says she was told that the girl's desperate final act had had something to do with bullying, believes there is an urgent need for much more research into the territory's horrendous number of indigenous suicides. ''There had been a lot of bullying at school, but there is nothing cultural about a kid being bullied. That is an issue that can and should be dealt with.''

The shocking fact remains that more young girls are killing themselves than ever before in the Northern Territory. It is almost impossible to put an accurate figure on the precise number suiciding because of a time lag in reporting the deaths, but no one disputes figures complied in the NT Child Death and Prevention Committee annual report, showing that territory Aboriginal children are 3.5 times more likely to die during childhood than non-Aboriginal children.

Booze Territory: The Crisis of Alcoholism

 Anna Krien | The Monthly | September 2011 

On a Tuesday morning, I make my way to the Gap View Hotel for a drinking session starting at 10 am. I’m told this is one of Alice Springs’ three notorious ‘animal bars’ but, when I get there, the hotel is all shut up. The car park is empty except for a car with an Aboriginal couple sitting inside. I tap on their window and wave my hand at the closed pub. “Not open?”

“2 pm,” comes the answer.

“Oh,” I nod. I’m about to get back into my car when I realise the woman is talking about the bottle shop.

“You mean the bottle shop isn’t open till two?” I ask. She nods. “You waiting around for that?” She nods again. “Isn’t there a bar here?” That’s when I discover a section of the pub is open. The woman directs me out of the car park, back along the main road and down the side of the hotel. A small concrete corridor with no roof doglegs until it is hidden from street view, where a toothless security guard greets me. He raises an eyebrow, then runs a metal detector across my clothes and confiscates my pens.

“Someone’s been stabbed with a pen before,” he says. “You can grab ’em when you leave, luv.”

Behind me an Aboriginal boy, just turned 18, offers a scrap of paper to prove he’s of age. Kindly, the security guard explains how to get a proper ID and turns him away. I walk up a cement ramp to a bar, billiard tables and pokies. There are lots of people milling around but the guy at the entrance tells me it doesn’t “get pumping till 11.30 am”, when the bar “switches to full-strength beer”. Techno music blares out of speakers. As I wander around, a Sudanese security guard approaches me, his face concerned. “Am I lost?” he wants to know.

In a way, I am. I don’t want a beer. It’s 10 am, for Chrissake.

*

At the Todd Tavern down the road it’s just after midday and the place is jumping. Billy Joel is on the jukebox and women jiggle in time, waiting to be served. On one side of the tavern is the Riverside Bar, the original ‘animal bar’, complete with blackened windows creating a kind of false night for its drinkers, who chuck their empties into wheelie bins dotted around the room. A lone white man runs the bar.

“They’re comfortable in there,” numerous people say to me when I ask about the low-slung ceiling that makes you hunch and the permanent night. “No oneforces them to drink there.”

In 2009 CCTV footage revealed 236 people inside the small bar at 11.48 am when it is licensed for 100 – the Todd was suspended from trading for 5 days. Today, around the other side of the tavern, the cleaner and more sophisticated bar with clear windows is also full of Indigenous people. What used to be a voluntarily segregated pub – blacks in the animal bar, whites in the classier section – is now black and black.

Outside, Indigenous people are hanging around the closed roller doors of the Thirsty Camel drive-through bottle shop attached to the Todd Tavern. Some form small groups, others wait in banged-up cars across the road, and a lone man, his purple shirt tucked into black pants, his belt buckle and boots shining, with a cowboy hat tilted over his eyes, leans against the brick wall, waiting.

At 2 pm the shutters will open, the tavern will close and the drinking will shift to the dry riverbed of the Todd River.

The change in the hour brings about a different kind of busyness as pubs are cleaned for the late afternoon trade. It is rush hour for Alice Springs taxi drivers. “No car, no drive-through” is the new rule for these bottlos (unless you’re white, in which case you can walk up and buy whatever you want), and taxis are hailed for the 10 metre trip and paid much, much more than the distance demands.

‘Bush’ minibuses that drive back and forth from remote Indigenous communities are cheered and hailed into the Gap View Hotel car park, the accordion doors opening for six or so blackfellas, some so zonked they can barely muster any sign of life. And then off they go! Through the drive-through!

I watch as the guy in the purple shirt and cowboy hat approaches the bottle shop and is shooed away like a feral dog. “No car, no drive-through,” an attendant yells at the man’s back as he slinks away.

Lawyers challenge police alcohol ban powers

Peter Munro | The Age | 31 July 2011

POLICE powers to ban people from licensed venues could be challenged in the Supreme Court after a young woman was excluded for a year from every pub, bottle shop and licensed restaurant in her home town despite not being found guilty of any crime.

The 21-year-old was banned under a ''liquor accord'' between police and licensees from supermarket liquor outlets and licensed pizza shops, cafes and clubs in Swan Hill after being charged with apparently unrelated drugs offences. Similar bans under Victoria's liquor laws are limited to cases of alcohol-related violence or disorder.

Police appeared to be overstepping their powers, said Victorian Legal Aid's senior public defender, Saul Holt. ''She will be prevented for the next 12 months from attending 21st birthday parties of friends at licensed venues, prevented from having meals out with family at licensed venues and prevented from going to the supermarket,'' he said.

''A significant part of her ability to participate in community life has been stopped by this banning notice.''

Legal Aid was considering challenging the banning notice in the Supreme Court because there was no evidence that suggested their client was involved in any offence related to licensed premises, he said.

There are 89 liquor licence accords in Victoria with banning powers to combat alcohol-related crime. But the Swan Hill and District Liquor Industry Accord permits bans in connection with any alleged offence or breach of council by-laws. Bans are issued by police or licensees without court oversight. The only right of appeal is to a senior police officer.

''You could be banned from your local pub or club for littering outside a licensed premises, based on the way this particular accord is drafted,'' Mr Holt said.

''We don't have any difficulty per se with the power to do it in limited circumstances, such as when there is a very serious violent incident at a licensed premises. But it's the breadth and lack of oversight of these orders that concerns us.''

Bottlos can 'ignore' law

Nigel Adlam | The NT News | 6 July 2011

BOTTLE shop workers were yesterday told they could use their discretion over the Banned Drinkers Register.

Attorney-General Delia Lawrie said sales assistants could "use their common sense" when checking ID.

After being told tourists were being refused service because international driving licences don't scan, Ms Lawrie said: "If the person's clearly not a chronic alcoholic, then go ahead, proceed with sale."

But the CLP said this was "totally wrong"

Opposition alcohol policy spokesman Peter Styles said: "The law says that a driver's licence or other form of approved identification must be scanned against the register. If it can't be scanned for whatever reason, then the sale of alcohol can not proceed.

"That's the law - there's no room for discretion ... "

The Liquor Act says: "An authorised seller must not sell liquor to an individual without scanning an approved identification of the individual with the scanner."

Ms Lawrie said the operator could also manually check the customer's name and DOB against the banned drinker's register.

Another 63 put on grog ban list

David Wood | The NT News | 5 July 2011

MORE than 43,000 people had their IDs scanned when buying alcohol from Friday to Sunday, with 63 added to the new banned drinker register.

From July 1 everyone buying takeaway alcohol in the Territory must have their ID - driver's licence, proof of age card or a passport - scanned. Those on the banned drinkers register cannot buy grog.

Liquor Stores Association of the Northern Territory president Faye Hartley said Friday night was "horrific" in her Stuart Park shop with IDs failing to scan because they were old and faded.

But Ms Hartley said they would give the technology a chance. She said about 40 per cent of customers on Friday were upset and they could not sell alcohol to about 30 people who did not have ID.

Nightcliff Supermarket owner Linford Feick said they had been visited by both police and government inspectors to make sure the system was working and said that it had not caused any major problems.

Territory Alcohol Policy Minister Delia Lawrie said between Friday and 10pm on Sunday night more than 43,000 people had been scanned, with five refused service because they were on the register.

She said 63 new names had already been added to the banned list.

"Extensive work has been undertaken to ensure that the scanning of IDs ran as smoothly as possible," Ms Lawrie said.

There were already 500 people on the register as it was being used in Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek.

People can be added for various drinking related offences including being locked up for being drunk three times in three months.

Ms Hartley said people were getting irate on Friday, partly because it was cracker night and very busy.

"It was just horrific. There were a lot of people in the shop," she said.

"A lot of the IDs are faded and do not scan properly and we have to enter a person's details manually."

Ms Lawrie said the Government was offering free proof of age cards until September 20.