Researchers call for reversal of CLP promise to scrap minimum alcohol price in the NT

The government’s plan to scrap minimum alcohol pricing in the NT will have Territorians ‘paying the price’ of increased health costs, alcohol-fuelled violence, and economic drain, researchers warn.

The government’s plan to scrap minimum alcohol pricing in the NT will have Territorians ‘paying the price’ of increased health costs, alcohol-fuelled violence, and economic drain, researchers warn.

Amelia (not her real name), a 42-year-old woman living south of Darwin, said the floor price helped her escape the ravaging grips of alcohol addiction.

“I was drinking 2L cask wine and some spirits, which were affordable and easy to get,” she said.

“My drinking soon took over my life … it put a huge strain on my relationships with my children and isolated me from community.”

The then Labor government introduced a minimum floor price in 2018, a recommendation of the Riley Review into NT alcohol policies.

Currently the price sits at $1.30 per standard drink, targeting problem drinkers by increasing the cost of the cheapest high-volume alcohol.

“At first, I was very frustrated. I couldn’t afford to buy the same amount of alcohol I was used to,” Amelia said.

After being hospitalised several times for withdrawal in 2018 and 2019 and being diagnosed with early-stage kidney disease, Amelia was forced to confront how dependent on alcohol she had become.

Generic images of alcohol being consumed in the Darwin CBD. Generic images of alcohol rubbish. Picture: Floss Adams.

It was a bumpy journey in and out of counselling and rehab, but eventually she managed to quit drinking entirely.

Amelia thanks minimum unit pricing for “inadvertently creating the push I needed”.

“While it wasn’t the solution alone, it opened the door for me to seek help I needed and begin healing,” she said.

Cassandra Wright is a researcher at the Menzies School of Health Research running the NT’s only dedicated alcohol and drug research program.

She said the evidence was clear the floor price worked to reduce alcohol related harms.

“The alcohol industry purposely draws on unsubstantiated evidence – some of it blatantly untrue – because the minimum unit price doesn’t benefit them. I don’t know how anyone can look at what we’re looking at and come to any other conclusion,” Dr Wright said.

“If the MUP is scrapped it will be Territorians who pay the price, there’s not just a human cost, but there’s a huge financial cost dealing with alcohol-fuelled problems and increased burden on the health system.”

AADANT chief executive Stephanie Holmes.

Association of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies NT said the floor price was an effective harm reduction policy “that costs nothing to keep”.

“If you buy a 4L or 6L cask wine to escape whatever is going on in your life, that’s 48 standard drinks you’re going to be consuming,” chief executive Stephanie Holmes said.

“This is not just about reducing violence, there are so many other harms caused from people being able to access such large quantities of alcohol: liver cirrhosis, cancer, babies being born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

“Chronic drinkers will be chronic drinkers no matter the price, but by increasing the minimum it means less standard drinks for your money. There’s no evidence spirit consumption has been more harmful than cask wine consumption.”

HospitalityNT acting chief executive Sarah Andrews. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Hospitality NT supported the floor price being scrapped, arguing wholesale alcohol reports clearly showed a transfer from wine to spirits since its introduction.

“There have been detrimental and unintended consequences of the NT’s floor price, as customers have moved from cask wine to more harmful spirits and bottled wine,” acting chief executive Sarah Andrews said.

“Hospitality staff have been tasked with informing interstate visitors their cask wine is three times the price of the last place they purchased before entering the NT – that’s not the welcome we wish to provide visitors to the NT.

“Many operators discontinued cask wine products most impacted by the floor price, which has reduced options for all Territorians.”

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro told people who opposed the floor price removal to “take a look at the evidence in front of them”.

“Since the floor price has come in what we see now in our parks is broken, smashed glass, people turning to hard spirits instead of wine.

“I ask them to ask themselves, is that a better outcome for our community and chronically affected alcoholics? And the answer overwhelmingly is no.”