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Pubs and Drinking Hours under attack yet again
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PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd's historic ideas summit will look at slashing the number of bars in Australia and reducing their opening hours to break the binge drinking culture gripping the nation.
One of the summit's hand-picked leaders, Tim Costello, said yesterday access to alcohol in Australia was too easy and tackling the problem would be high on his agenda at the April summit in Canberra.
"There are far too many outlets," he said.
"Closing times need to be adjusted. The way we serve alcohol in a responsible way, the codes for serving alcohol, need to be tightened."
Amid growing evidence of a drinking epidemic, Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital said yesterday the number of drunken louts turning up injured had quadrupled in the past five years.
Emergency Department director Phillip Kay said the main offenders were young men aged 17 to 25, although some were as young as 14.
"We see about 5000 every year, most of which come in Friday and Saturday nights," Dr Kay said. "The part of their brain that recognises danger doesn't develop until they're 25."
The Australian National Council on Drugs this week estimated more than 30,000 15-year-olds and one in five 16 and 17-year-olds binge drink every week.
While Mr Rudd has promised action on alcohol and drug abuse, describing the problem as "out of control", Mr Costello wants his 2020 summit session on strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion to find practical solutions.
He has flagged proposals to wind back the number of bars operating in Australia and their opening hours, while revising the operating rules for liquor outlets.
"What we know is that alcohol does far more damage than any illegal drug in Australia," Mr Costello said.
His suggestions yesterday won the backing of Curtin University's National Drug Research Institute senior researcher Tanya Chikritzhs, who has just released the results of a study linking new liquor licences with increased assaults.
Her study found an average new city hotel would increase the number of domestic violence assaults in the surrounding area by 17 a year, while a new metropolitan liquor store would see an extra eight assaults a year.
And Dr Chikritzhs said those figures were probably just the tip of the iceberg, given the nation's under-reporting of domestic violence.
"The bottom line is the more licences you have, the longer trading hours they have, the more problems that will occur," she said.
"That is the consistent, unavoidable conclusion that research has come to in this domain."
In Queensland, the State Government has responded to concerns about violent teenage parties and alcohol-fuelled Schoolies events with plans to fine parents up to $3000 for "recklessly" supplying alcohol to their under-age children. |
fucking hell 
im sick and tired of do-gooders telling the rest of us what we can and cant do, and when we can and can't do it.
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