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Day 360 Of Alcopops tax Grab

Press Releases April 21 2009

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Highest rate of drink drivers in two decades

Victoria’s drink-driving rate has soared and violence again stained Melbourne’s streets this weekend, evidence the Rudd government’s alcopops tax is failing to tackle the problem of binge drinking, Family First Leader, Senator Steve Fielding, said today.

Victoria’s drink-driving rate is at its highest level with one in every 220 drivers stopped by booze buses in the past year over the legal blood-alcohol limit.

“It’s clear after 360 days that the Rudd government’s alcopops tax grab is not working to tackle the problems of binge drinking and alcohol abuse and this government is deceiving Australians by pretending it does,” Senator Fielding said.

“The introduction of this tax measure has done nothing to curb the issue of binge drinking and to stop those drunks who get behind the wheel of a car or who take to our streets to abuse and assault others.

“The government can talk all it likes about how the alcopops tax is an effective measure but the only effect this tax has is on bottle shops where people are spending less to buy larger bottles of spirits and mix their own drinks with much greater quantities of alcohol in each drink.

“If the alcopops tax is working at tackling binge drinking, why did the Labor Brumby government need to hold an urgent summit on alcohol issues last week, almost a year after its Federal counterparts introduced a tax measure they say has curbed Australia’s binge drinking culture? Something doesn’t add up here.

“We need to break the booze toll and get drunks off our streets and our roads. The Rudd government must not waste this opportunity to tackle Australia’s grog culture and stop the toll of violence and abuse alcohol is causing on our communities.

“A tax measure will not change our culture of binge drinking. This government must do more by refusing to allow alcohol to get its hooks into vulnerable young people. It must break the link between alcohol and sport by cutting booze ads during sports events on television, it must put warning labels on alcohol products and it must remove the power to regulate the industry from the industry.”