Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says the minimum unit price on alcohol has pushed people to buy rum instead of wine, making them drunker faster and more aggressive

Transcript

Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says the minimum unit price on alcohol has pushed people to buy rum instead of wine, making them drunker faster and more aggressive · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let me take you through exactly what the Northern Territory
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: government have said in their statement. So basically they've come
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: out this morning and said that the government is going
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to well. They've released this three year evaluation of the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: minimum unit price, and so it was designed as part
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of a suite of alcohol reforms aimed at cutting alcohol
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: related harm and anti social behavior across the Northern Territory. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the evaluation acknowledged that it was difficult to solely evaluate
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the minimum unit price without considering the assistance of other
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: alcohol related reform measures. But the evaluation concluded that the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: minimum unit price has been effective and recommended keeping it
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  Speaker 1: in place. Now, the Northern Territory Government say that the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: key findings included a reduction in alcohol related harms, a
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  Speaker 1: reduction in the supply of low cost alcohol related products
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: or alcohol products like cask wine, and no evidence to
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  Speaker 1: suggest that the minimum unit price had any negative effects
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on industry, tourism, all the Northern Territory economy. Now joining
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  Speaker 1: me on the line right now is that industry. The
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  Speaker 1: CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory, Alex Bruce,
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  Speaker 1: good morning to.
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  Speaker 2: You, good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Have we gone not too bad? Alex obviously this minimum
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  Speaker 1: unit price. Well, the evaluation has been released.
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  Speaker 2: What was your reaction, Ah, disappointed, A bit of a
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  Speaker 2: lost opportunity. We know that a lot of the information
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  Speaker 2: was provided from industry and frontline workers, be they government
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  Speaker 2: and non government agencies in the sector, all three different
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  Speaker 2: parts of of the space. We're basically saying the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: It's had unintended consequences. There's been a shift away from
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  Speaker 2: calf wine, but you know, don't pop the champagne cooks
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  Speaker 2: on that yet, because we've seen more than that picked
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  Speaker 2: up in white wine and spirits, particularly Bundy rum. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, people are drinking Bundy rum in public places
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  Speaker 2: straight out of the bottle where they used to be
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  Speaker 2: on cask wine, and they're getting drunker, earlier, more aggressive,
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  Speaker 2: and that's been these three year impacts. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we were hoping that, based on the consultations that we
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  Speaker 2: participated in, and based on knowing that that was the
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  Speaker 2: front line's view as well from the different sectors involved,
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  Speaker 2: that clearer heads would prevail and the government would say,
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  Speaker 2: you know what, Riley only ever recommended this as a
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  Speaker 2: stop gap measure to a national approach. It's clear the
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  Speaker 2: national approach isn't happening. So you know what, we've given
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  Speaker 2: it a red hot go, but it's time to ditch it.
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  Speaker 1: So Alex, obviously they're not ditching it. In fact, the
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  Speaker 1: very opposite. They're keeping it in place and they believe
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  Speaker 1: it's a success.
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  Speaker 2: There's just cherry picked stats on both sides. You can
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  Speaker 2: mount the argument for and against. I defer to your listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Look around any street, any town, any city in the
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  Speaker 2: territory right now. Has the flaw price helped, has it
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  Speaker 2: fixed anything? It's caused more harm than it's worth. That
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  Speaker 2: is our strong, clear advice to government. And it's disappointing
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  Speaker 2: that they've gone another way because they've handfisted the communications
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  Speaker 2: on the stronger futures ending up. Mate.
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  Speaker 1: Our tech line has gone absolutely berserk today, like honestly,
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  Speaker 1: and I am hard pressed to find out of all
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  Speaker 1: the messages that we've received really any that are overly
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  Speaker 1: supportive of the minimum unit price. And the majority of
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  Speaker 1: people are sort of saying, all you've got to do
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  Speaker 1: is go for a bit of a walk around town
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  Speaker 1: and see people drinking publicly, see the rubbish that is
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  Speaker 1: around the place. The government kept sort of or the
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  Speaker 1: chief minister kept referring to the risk based licensing this
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  Speaker 1: morning when I interviewed her. I mean, what was your
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  Speaker 1: sort of reaction as she was raising that.
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  Speaker 2: Y Oh, look they're good at sticking to the script.
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  Speaker 2: But that's all it is, Katie Bline. Freddie will tell you,
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  Speaker 2: and the crime stats prove it. It's out of control.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we had a venue out in Parmerston. A
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  Speaker 2: lady was in there with scissors, chasing the staff around.
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  Speaker 2: She gets picked up the very next day that same
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  Speaker 2: venue observer back out on the streets walking around and
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  Speaker 2: I'd heard that she'd done something similar a few days later,
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  Speaker 2: and now finally she's taken out of the community. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, this is what's going on on a daily basis,
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  Speaker 2: and you know here they are trumpeting minimum floor price
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  Speaker 2: is an effective strategy and it's just not. That's utter rubbish.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Alex, I know we've had a couple of
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  Speaker 1: messages coming through saying, you know, the only people that
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  Speaker 1: are benefiting from the change to the floor price is
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  Speaker 1: the alcohol industry.
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  Speaker 2: What would you say to that? So this is the
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  Speaker 2: other problem. We push through excise tax increases every six
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  Speaker 2: months through the bottle shops plus on premise the cost
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  Speaker 2: of your schooner keeps going up. That's the federal government
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  Speaker 2: tax that already covers the space that already does get
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  Speaker 2: divvied back up and given to the states to actually
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  Speaker 2: do their job keep us all safe. When you look
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  Speaker 2: at the flaw price, it largely doesn't impact a lot
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  Speaker 2: of products. So the spirits and the wine and the
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  Speaker 2: beer that they have shifted to away from the cask
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  Speaker 2: wine is not impacted directly by the price. But therefore,
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  Speaker 2: if all you've done is taken someone that was drinking
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  Speaker 2: thirteen percent alcohol and you're giving them a bottle and
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  Speaker 2: they're consuming it at forty percent alcohol, no wonder. We're
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  Speaker 2: seeing an explosion of public public anti social attachment and
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  Speaker 2: that literally is what this policy does. So for the
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  Speaker 2: life of me, I don't know how anyone in the
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  Speaker 2: health space can hand on heart says. Taking a cask
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  Speaker 2: wine off that vulnerable person and handing them a bottle
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  Speaker 2: of Bundy to skull instead is a better measure for
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the community to deal with.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I know that it's being reported this morning. Obviously
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  Speaker 1: the NT and News has had a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: more extensive look through the report and they're saying that
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  Speaker 1: it's twenty eighteen, there's been a twenty five point eight
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  Speaker 1: percent decrease in alcohol related assaults, a thirty seven point
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  Speaker 1: six percent decrease in alcohol related hospital admissions in Alice Springs,
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  Speaker 1: and a twenty four point two percent decline in Tenant Creek.
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  Speaker 1: Across the territory of nineteen point four percent reduction in
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  Speaker 1: alcohol related hospital presentations via recorded per capita. I just
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  Speaker 1: can't wrap my head around this. If I'm really honest,
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  Speaker 1: because people.
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  Speaker 2: Will, yeah, I'll lay it out clearly. Hopefully all that
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  Speaker 2: data is in from regional areas where the palais are
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  Speaker 2: proving to be effective. And even the report says they
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  Speaker 2: can't determine what is a pally measure versus a floor
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  Speaker 2: price measure. And when they looked at Darwin and Palmerston,
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  Speaker 2: where there are no palis and only the floor price,
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  Speaker 2: they saw no change. So by all of those towns
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  Speaker 2: achieving good numbers, it's affecting the overall territory one. So
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  Speaker 2: they're just cherry picking the stats to suit their predetermined narrative.
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  Speaker 2: We just think, you know, leave all of the tip
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  Speaker 2: for chatting aside. Let's actually scrap the policies that don't
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  Speaker 2: work or actually doing more harm in the community than
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  Speaker 2: are good, so just sanitize it and whitewashing and move
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  Speaker 2: on like there's nothing to see here. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: were hoping for a changed approach with the Chief Minister.
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  Speaker 1: It's pretty Look, I think it's it's pretty I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what the right word of saying, what the right
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  Speaker 1: way of saying it, but it's sort of you know,
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  Speaker 1: I guess the community is feeling really frustrated upon hearing
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  Speaker 1: this today and upon sort of you know, what the
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  Speaker 1: government's saying, because what the government is now saying based
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  Speaker 1: on you know, the data that they've released and based
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  Speaker 1: on what they've released, goes against the community sentiment at
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  Speaker 1: this point, Alex, I do want to ask you know,
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  Speaker 1: you're talking then about those palis and saying that they
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  Speaker 1: are effective. Obviously in some of those regional locations, we
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  Speaker 1: had heard from the Police Association earlier in the week
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  Speaker 1: about the high volume of refusals. We'd also spoken to
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  Speaker 1: the Assistant Commissioner for Regional and Remote Policing based in
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  Speaker 1: our springs, Martin Dole, a little bit earlier. There's no
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  Speaker 1: doubt that it makes a difference those palis being on
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  Speaker 1: the bottle shops. But now that that Stronger Future's legislation
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  Speaker 1: has ended, it seems as though there is an enormous
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  Speaker 1: amount of people trying to get their hands on alcohol,
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  Speaker 1: and potentially what it's doing is, you know, if we
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  Speaker 1: don't have enough of those palis, it means that you've
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  Speaker 1: got constables and others that are having to step over
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  Speaker 1: and do that job. I mean, is it time for
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  Speaker 1: some of those some of those different outlets to just
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  Speaker 1: have their own security doing that job.
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  Speaker 2: And then what will the average reasonable consumer be paying
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  Speaker 2: for alcohol in the Northern Territory. Then, like all of
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  Speaker 2: these universal approaches come down to the fact that no
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  Speaker 2: one wants to actually call out the individual behavior that
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  Speaker 2: is inappropriate and keep the targeted sanctions on that kind
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  Speaker 2: of behavior. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I don't know where we're going to land with
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  Speaker 1: all this. Hey, at the moment, it just seems like
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  Speaker 1: the government isn't sort of understanding the way the community's
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  Speaker 1: feeling right now with some of these alcohol mishoes.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. And Katie, if you talk to a fisho
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  Speaker 2: or a caravan or a camper, they want cans if
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  Speaker 2: they're beer drinkers, not bottles. And similarly, if they like
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  Speaker 2: a nice white wine at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: they'd prefer it in a cask in their fridge in
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  Speaker 2: the caravan, not a bottle. So they're still coming across
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  Speaker 2: the country enjoying, hopefully the territory and the first experience
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  Speaker 2: they had when they come to one of our bottle
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  Speaker 2: shops and get their standard cast wine that will last
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  Speaker 2: them a week and it's three times the cost of
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  Speaker 2: what they paid in wa or Queensland. They give the
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  Speaker 2: poor attendant a gobful. But why are they paying more
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  Speaker 2: in the territory? What harm have they done? Why are
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  Speaker 2: we doing anything at a government level that targets that?
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  Speaker 1: Alex, you know, what is your message for the government today.
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's just let's all of sit down, calm down,
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  Speaker 2: call time on policies that are proven not to work.
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  Speaker 2: We gave it a go, Riley said, do it until
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  Speaker 2: they're a federal approach. There's not a federal approach coming.
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  Speaker 2: We've got the taxes and the excises that we have
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  Speaker 2: that see prices continually go up every six months and
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  Speaker 2: the customer up here thinks the excise increase is linked
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  Speaker 2: to the floor price when it's not. Let's just ditch
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the floor price and get a run around the table
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  Speaker 2: and work on policies and solutions that we think actually
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  Speaker 2: will work well.
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  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, the CEO of hospitality here in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: always appreciate your time. Thank you for chatting with me
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Cheers Katie or the best.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you