A forgotten 2022 report questions the impact of grog floor price

A 2022 report casts shade on the impact an alcohol floor price has on crime and violence. Read what it said.

The impact of an alcohol floor price on Territory grog consumption was questioned in a 2022 report looking at the Territory Labor government’s alcohol harm reduction measures.

Data confirmed reductions in key performance indicators and regional shifts in grog-related activities.

Significantly the best outcomes were skewed towards locations where police auxiliaries were located at bottleshops.

The report was commissioned by the previous Labor administration to scrutinise the impacts of its alcohol restrictions.

The CLP Government wants to scrap the mandatory alcohol floor price - known as the minimum unit price - and is countering strong opposition from the health and anti-alcohol lobby.

The floor price legislation will be debated in this week’s Assembly sittings.

The Government wants to scrap the alcohol floor price.

New research by the Drug and Alcohol Review found rates of alcohol-related injuries in the Territory declined between 2007 and 2022 on the back of Labor government grog mitigation policies like the banned drinker register and the mandatory floor price.

Frontier Economics’ July 2022 report ‘Evaluation of Minimum Unit Price of Alcohol in the Northern Territory’ acknowledged that the floor price changed alcohol consumption behaviours, but questioned its overall impacts.

Its findings note regional differences, with the best statistical outcomes around alcohol harm coming where there police auxiliaries - variously known as POLIS or PALIS - were stationed at bottleshops.

It attributed, for example, a 25.8 per cent reduction in non-domestic violence assaults per 10,000 people in the NT following the introduction of policies including the MUP.

“However, for those impacts where regional data is available there is no reduction in the Greater Darwin area and significant reductions in other locations,” the Frontier report said.

It also cited no significant impact on drink driving crashes in Greater Darwin following the introduction of the MUP, which it said contrasted with Alice Springs and other regional centres.

“Similarly, there is no significant reduction in alcohol related emergency department presentations in Greater Darwin, while reductions of 37.6 per cent and 24.2 per cent can be observed in Alice Springs Hospital and Tennant Creek Hospital after the MUP’s introduction respectively.

“This suggests the reduction in alcohol related harms is likely to be related to policy interventions other than the MUP, including local licencing arrangements and PALIs.”

The report also reports drinkers substituting products impacted by the MUP like cask wine with other grog types.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Marie-Clare Boothby. Picture: Supplied

“Cask wine sales in NT remain below pre-MUP volumes, suggesting the MUP has had an enduring impact,” the Frontier report said. “However, there has been an increase in the sales of all other alcohol types, most notable for spirits, where sales increased substantially from early 2020.”

The report noted “significant price rebalancing” across “a range of alcohol products” following the introduction of the MUP.

Police auxiliaries, who would stop the sale of takeaway grog to anybody without a fixed address in Alice Springs, were first introduced into bottleshops in by Labor in 2012 and retained by the incoming CLP government.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister, Marie-Clare Boothby, previously made the link between alcohol transference and the MUP, which effectively forced the elimination of casked wine in the Territory.

“Alcohol-related assaults have increased by 38 per cent in the past eight years under Labor,” she said.

“People aren’t drinking less; they have changed what they drink from wine boxes to stronger spirits in glass bottles - which then can be used as weapons.” and the MUP, which effectively forced the elimination of casked wine in the Territory.

“Alcohol-related assaults have increased by 38 per cent in the past eight years under Labor,” she said.

“People aren’t drinking less; they have changed what they drink from wine boxes to stronger spirits in glass bottles - which then can be used as weapons.”

Originally published as A forgotten 2022 report questions the impact of grog floor price