Calls for alcohol law changes as women’s ministers hold meeting

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Ministers for women have met in Canberra to discuss plans to address recommendations from a rapid review into the prevention of violence against women and children. High on the agenda for federal, state and territory ministers were changes to alcohol laws after the review called for limits to same day and late-night alcohol deliveries. Women's safety advocate Katherine Berney says there needs to be better communication of the evidence backing these proposed changes.

Transcript

00:00I think there's been a lot of progress at a federal level that has happened in terms

00:06of the rapid review.

00:07I think what we're lacking is a bit of a communications gap to the broader sector about what's exactly

00:13happening.

00:14Now, it's important to note that the states and territories made the commitment to review

00:19their liquor acts as part of national cabinet.

00:21State and territory governments have signed on to the national plan, but we're seeing

00:25a lot of stalling and a lot of, oh, we're not really sure, there's not enough evidence.

00:30There's heaps of evidence.

00:32There's heaps of it.

00:32Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Foundation

00:38of Research and Education.

00:40There's a lot of evidence that says restricting these delivery laws will help people who are

00:46living in violence.

00:47Why do you think then that the states and territories haven't brought these things in?

00:52I think that alcohol enjoys a large social framework in Australia.

00:58There's no other way to look at it.

01:01And I think it's so important to remember that we're not calling for banning alcohol.

01:07We want to reduce the harm.

01:09Now, we've already done that.

01:11We've done that when we looked at drink driving.

01:14So I think for me, I don't really understand what the difference is and why there's a hold

01:20up, is it perhaps because we consider harm that happens in the home to be private and

01:27we consider harm that happens on the road to be public?

01:30I'm not sure.

01:31But the reality is it's all harm reduction and we've already done it and we've done it

01:34successfully through regulation.

01:36So I'm looking forward to when we have all the states and territories on board.

01:41You mentioned evidence in numerous studies about it.

01:45What, for a layman, what is the direct link between alcohol and gambling?

01:51That comes into the bracket too.

01:52And domestic violence?

01:54I think it's important to note that when you have episodes of physical violence that

02:02are occurring and someone is living in violence, alcohol is an accelerator.

02:08And when the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare were interviewing people, they

02:13were far more likely to have severe physical injury when alcohol was involved.

02:20Now, if you imagine then that we have alcohol available on a tap 24 hours in someone's home,

02:27it's likely to make those situations extremely volatile but also extremely unsafe.

02:33And the gambling side of it, there were calls for a gambling ad ban, which we know that

02:38the government isn't currently pursuing.

02:41I think that when you lower inhibitions, people will make choices and those choices can result

02:48in extremely stressful outcomes, which again, we're talking about lowered inhibitions,

02:54poor choices, pressure cooker situation, financial situation.

02:58You're creating an environment that is ripe for serious physical injury for people who

03:04are living in violence.

03:05There were 21 recommendations, Catherine, in this rapid review.

03:09What progress has been made?

03:12Look, I think that there are a lot of initiatives that are occurring, particularly at a federal

03:17level.

03:18So we're looking at different, particularly the legislation arm of it.

03:21We've certainly contributed to a lot of those changes, be that on social security reform in

03:28terms of debt waiver payments and taking into consideration of coercive control.

03:33I think the problem is that it appears to be patchy to the average Australian.

03:39And what we actually need is a comprehensive communication document from all of National Cabinet

03:45to say where exactly we're up to and which of the initiatives have been adopted.

03:50It was not so long ago, Catherine, that domestic violence in Australia was described as a

03:56national emergency, and that's why this rapid review took place.

04:01It just seems odd that we've come to a roadblock here with the states and territories, bipartisan

04:08support.

04:08What do you think is the roadblock and is it overcomable?

04:13Absolutely.

04:13It has to be overcomable because all of our governments across the Federation have committed

04:18to ending violence in one generation.

04:20And I think there is real will.

04:22I think if you were to ask your average politician, is it acceptable when someone's murdered because

04:27of a system failure, they would say no.

04:29But what we need to do is keep the attention on it.

04:32We have a lot of people in Australia who are living in violence.

04:37What kind of Australia are we building if we don't provide better pathways across early

04:42intervention, prevention, crisis response and a health recovery?

04:47Actually, it needs attention across all of it.

04:50So we have a robust and healthy society in Australia.

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