Experts want alcohol prices to rise

Research that ranks Australians among the world's worst abusers of alcohol is more
proof of the need for alcohol tax reform and price increases, experts say.
Professor Paul Haber, medical director of Drug Health Services for the Sydney
South-West Area Health Service, said introducing a volumetric tax would help to
reduce the broadscale but overlooked impact of alcohol abuse on Australian
communities.
"The impact of alcohol is huge - for example, in emergency departments
three-quarters of the patients seen on a Friday night are typically there because of
alcohol-related problems," Prof Haber told reporters on Tuesday.
"The same applies outside the hospitals for police in country towns - it is such a
massive impact that it is like the elephant in the room and we can't see it."
Prof Haber said research showed that increasing warning labels on alcohol products
would do little to curb problematic consumption, and that only an unpopular increase
in prices would drive the consumption and cultural changes that were needed.
"Increasing the tax, and applying the tax in a volumetric way - per unit of alcohol
- is overall the most effective single thing you can do, but it is not very
popular," he said.
"A tax on alcohol would make it more expensive, and people drink less (so) instead
of having 10 drinks their pocket will be emptied out after five or six."
A volumetric tax, one of the recommendations of the Henry tax review, would replace
the nation's 13 different alcohol tax rates with a single per-volume levy that would
not differentiate between alcoholic beverages.
In general, the current system allows beer and wine products to attract a lower rate
of tax per unit of alcohol than spirits.
Chris Doran, health economist at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
(NDARC), said the price of wine in particular should rise.
"Bulk wine, cask wine, is where the tax is low and so companies can afford to sell
in bulk at discounted prices," Dr Doran said.
"The evidence locally, and internationally, is that volumetric taxation is the most
cost-effective strategy ... in terms of reducing the harms of alcohol misuse."
Both experts attended the annual symposium of NDARC, at the University of NSW.
Latest data released at the symposium this week put the number of Australians who
will experience alcohol dependence, or periods of serious abuse, during their
lifetime at 3.5 million.
This amounted to 22 per cent of the population, ranking Australia among the world's
worst countries for alcohol abuse.
The study also found less than one in five Australians with an alcohol problem would
receive any professional help.



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