Opinion & Commentary
Health Minister gives a mixed message on binge drinking
From Midnight on Saturday – the hour when party people usually emerge – the Rudd Government raised the excise tax on so-called ‘alcopops’ by 70 per cent. To justify the hike, Nicola Roxon, the federal health minister, maintained that the Howard Government encouraged a rise in teenage binge drinking because it failed to bring the tax on pre-mixed drinks like Vodka Cruisers into line with the tax on bottled spirits.
The impact of alcohol taxes on young binge drinkers is a complex question. Estimates are that prices, per-bottle, will increase by up to $1.30. At worst, spending the same amount will buy between 1 and 2 fewer pre-mixed drinks. This is hardly likely to deter those determined to binge.
Price has played little role in the growing popularity of pre-mixed drinks. Because pre-mixes are actually the more expensive option, taste and convenience has encouraged underage drinkers to switch from the cheaper ‘old skool’ standard hip-flask plus bottle of coke. It is highly likely that most binge drinkers will simply pay a bit more to drink what they already prefer regardless of the cost.
Therefore, the idea that lower taxes fuelled teenage binge drinking and that higher taxes will curb it are both fanciful.
Yet wishing to simplify the subject, on weekend television the health minister argued that the percentage of young girls consuming pre-mixed drinks had increased from 14% to 60% since 2000. Rather than explaining what this really meant – their popularity has simply increased - the health minister created the impression that this was proof that binge drinking had exploded among teenage women, and that the new tax was justified to stem the binging ‘epidemic’ that had gripped the nation.
The figures the Minister quoted certainly sounded impressive. Except that the 2007 National Household Drug Survey found that since 1991, alcohol consumption patterns for Australians aged 14 years or older remained largely unchanged. That’s just for starters.
Look at the 2001, 2004, and 2007 surveys compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Wealth, and you also find that between 2001 and 2007 there was no overall increase in high-risk binge drinking by people aged 14 to 19. In fact, the percentage reported as binging weekly was 10.7 in both 2001 and 2004, before falling to 9.1 in 2007.
The figures for young women are even more damning. In 2001, the percentage of 14 to 19 year-olds binging weekly – 5 or more drinks on any one occasion - was 11.8%. In 2004, the figure was 10.5. In 2007, this had fallen to 9.5. Even the figure for 14-19 year old young women binging monthly has fallen since 2001 from 21.2 to 18.8. And the number of abstainers has increased from 25 to 29%.
This isn’t to say we should not be concerned about those young women who do binge drink. But the ‘crisis’ isn’t as great as the health minister portrayed and it does mean we should suspect government’s real agenda.
The tax hike on pre-mixed drinks will yield $500 million for the next four years. That’s a lot of money for a new government with promises to keep, which is determined not to administer any harsh budgetary medicine. The Health Minister herself has promised her cheer squad - preventive health groups and academics - that part of the extra revenue will go towards a new national preventive health agency.
To advance her own and the government’s political interests, the Health Minister has therefore argued that the ‘little Kimmies’ of suburbia have been out there binging their brains out. This is far from the truth.
Dr Jeremy Sammut is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, his paper False Promise of GP Super Clinics will be released by CIS next week.
