‘Key barriers’: Banned Drinker Register struggling to counter secondary supply of alcohol, according to new article

THE Banned Drinker Register has failed to resolve long-running issues around the secondary supply of alcohol in the NT, according to a new journal article

THE Banned Drinker Register (BDR) has failed to resolve long-running issues around the secondary supply of alcohol in the Northern Territory, according to a new journal article.

The article, which was published in the Australian Journal of Public Administration last week, summarises the findings of two 2019 studies by the Menzies School of Health Research, in which NT licensees were interviewed about their views on alcohol policy.

It found the BDR had “key barriers” to addressing secondary supply, as some people on the register would get around it by recruiting family members, friends or members of the public to buy them alcohol, using another person’s ID or even stealing.

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Some stakeholders also reported they believed the BDR had exacerbated grog-running in dry communities.

Lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Adamson said the stakeholders that researchers had spoken to had identified secondary supply as a key challenge they faced in implementing the BDR.

“It was just an area that they were unable to tackle,” she said. “If they had not witnessed it themselves, they were aware it was happening in some places, and it wasn’t something they had the capacity to prevent.

“Whether it was someone using an ID that’s not their own, or they didn’t know for sure whether someone was taking the alcohol they’d bought to someone else, or they were concerned that only one person in a group has to show ID, the limitations of the Banned Drinker Register were very apparent to them.

“There was a sense that (secondary supply) had always been happening, and there were mixed views as to whether the banned drinkers register had made it worse or not.”

Dr Adamson said any solution to the BDR’s problems with secondary supply, which could only be determined through broader consultation, would need to be implemented on top of the current policy.

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“One of our conclusions is that innovative responses are required to address secondary supply, beyond the tool of the banned drinkers register,” she said.

The BDR was introduced in 2017 to reduce alcohol-related harm in the NT, which has Australia’s highest rate of drinking per capita.

Secondary supply has been a long-running issue in the NT because unlike in many other parts of Australia, alcohol is prohibited in some locations deemed ‘dry areas’.

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