[Greens-Media] Bottle shop lobby allowed to rewrite liquor promotion rules

[John Kaye]

Bottle shop lobby allowed to rewrite liquor promotion rules

Media release: 14 July 2013

NSW government documents obtained by the Greens show that the liquor
retailers' lobby group, Coles and Woolworths were allowed to severely
weaken the guidelines for alcohol promotion.

While the alcohol industry was given more than a year to interfere with the
revision of the Liquor Promotion Guidelines, including direct access to key
public servants, public health groups and the community were kept in the
dark and denied any opportunity to comment, according to Greens NSW MP John
Kaye.

('Government bows to liquor industry on discounts', Sun Herald, 14 July,
pages 1 and 4, http://j.mp/sh130714)

Editor's note: Documents available on request.

Dr Kaye said: "Successive drafts were substantially weakened to suit the
commercial interests of the bottle shop owners and, in particular, Coles
and Woolworths.

"The O'Farrell government's Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing initially
proposed a ban on promotions involving 'discounts of greater than 50
percent off the normal  retail price'.

"However lobbying by Woolworths, Coles and  their peak body, the Liquor
Store Association (LSA), successfully caused the embargo to be dumped and
replaced with a much less restrictive requirement that harm minimisation
measures be applied to this kind of promotion.

"The LSA and Woolworths argued that the purchase of larger quantities of
alcohol as a result of a price discount does not lead to greater
consumption. Relying on an analogy to breakfast cereal and toilet paper,
the industry effectively denied that alcohol has addictive and
habit-forming properties and delivers a pleasure reward that encourages
abuse.

"Lobbying by the liquor stores also achieved a general escape clause to be
inserted at a number of key locations in the document. Provisions of the
draft Guidelines now "[recognise] that there may be variability in how this
principle applied depending on [the outlet's] business model". In effect  a
retailer would be able to argue that the principle was not relevant to
their particular promotion.

"While public health groups and the community were kept in the dark, the
O'Farrell government gave the liquor store lobby access to successive
drafts of the guidelines and the bureaucrats responsible for the revisions.
The result has been changes that substantially weaken the restrictions on
promotions and price discounting.

"The opportunity to respond to the evidence of the impacts of alcohol
promotions on young people has been subverted by the industry.

"The documents show that industry lobbying successfully undermined key
provisions in the state's rules on promotions of alcohol. Despite the
overwhelming evidence of the impacts of cost on unsafe drinking, Coles and
Woolworths will be able to discount by more than 50 percent off the normal
retail price.

"Claims by Coles that they were not aware of any conclusive evidence
linking price and promotions to alcohol related harm went unchallenged.

"The Liquor Store Association got away with suggesting that because
cut-price toilet paper does not lead to dangerous overuse, discounting
alcohol would not result in excessive or rapid consumption.

"The O'Farrell government's behind-closed-doors process was biased by the
exclusive access given to the industry. Lobbying by Coles, Woolworths and
the Liquor Stores Association has  produced outcomes that maximise their
opportunities to sell more of their goods while ignoring the evidence of
the relationship between alcohol discounting and promotions and dangerous
consumption.

"If the O'Farrell government is to escape the claim that the big retailers
have been allowed to rewrite the state's guidelines to suit their own
profit objectives, Minister George Souris should go back to the August 2012
guidelines and put them out for public consultation.

"With the Premier's former chief-of-staff about to take up a senior
appointment with Woolworths it is unlikely that there will be much progress
towards guidelines that limit the social harm that alcohol promotions and
discounting can create.

"The latest draft of the Guidelines are a testament to the political power
of the retailers and in particular Coles and Woolworths. Reducing
alcohol-related harms plays second fiddle to the supermarket chains in
Premier Barry O'Farrell's NSW," Dr Kaye said.


For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455

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John Kaye
Greens NSW MP
phone: 0407 195 455
web: www.john.nsw.greens.org.au
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