Evaluation report deems alcohol floor price scheme a success, despite direct outcomes being ‘impossible to distinguish’

THE Northern Territory’s alcohol floor price legislation has been deemed a success by an independent report, despite any outcomes from the legislation being noted as ‘impossible to distinguish’.

The Northern Territory’s alcohol floor price legislation has been deemed a success by an independent report, despite any outcomes from the legislation being noted as ‘impossible to distinguish’. Picture: IStock

• Liquor industry to learn results of controversial floor pricing scheme

THE Northern Territory’s alcohol floor price legislation has been deemed a success by an independent report, despite any outcomes from the legislation being noted as “impossible to distinguish”.

The evaluation into the Minimum Unit Price (MUP) of alcohol noted decreases to total alcohol wholesale per capita, alcohol-related assault, ambulance attendances, and road traffic crashes since it was implemented on October 1, 2018.

However, it said it was impossible to tell whether other initiatives had changed trends.

“Modelling was able to observe change in trends at and after October 2018,” the report said. “However, some changes … coincided with other interventions that were implemented at a similar time meaning the independent impact of MUP was impossible to distinguish.”

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But the report suggested MUP legislation had provided health benefits to the NT.

“The MUP is likely to have made a unique contribution to reduced harm described above and added to regionally specific policies like PALIs,” it said.

“This report has documented a wide range of benefits to the community, which have coincided with the implementation of the MUP in the NT.”

Retail Drinks Australia chief executive Julie Ryan said it was a surprise to see the report had been released given it conceded its own inadequacies.

“We really have to ask the question, how a report can form a conclusion that MUP was successful, when by its own admission it cannot separate out the impact of MUP from other alcohol-related policies,” Ms Ryan said.

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She said Retail Drinks Australia had commissioned its own independent report through Frontier Economics, which contradicted the findings of the Government’s consultation.

“Frontier Economics’ preliminary results show that total alcohol sales have increased by over 2 million standard drinks in the 12 months since an alcohol floor price was introduced in the NT, when compared to the corresponding year before,” Ms Ryan said.

“Put simply, since the floor price was introduced into the NT, Territorians have purchased more alcohol.”

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The Government report indicated a three-year evaluation would also be conducted to help fill in missing data.