Lateline on grog hours

Alcohol regulations in Alice Springs came under attack on the ABC program Lateline last night in a segment that focused on morning drinking sessions at the town’s pubs and their role in grog-induced misery among Aboriginal people.

The Todd Tavern’s “animal bar,” and bars at the Heavitree Tavern and the Gapview Motel, which open between 10am and 2pm, when takeaway bottle shops open, all feature in the segment.

Of one pub Dr John Boffa from the People’s Alcohol Action Commission tells reporter John Boffa: “It seems the publican only wants to make space available for very heavy drinkers until they can sell them take takeaway and basically get rid of them.”

In the report, Bolton points out that licensees are obliged to make sure drinkers don’t get too intoxicated during the 10 am to 2pm sessions, but have “no legal responsibility for what happens after the drinkers go on to buy large quantities at the bottle shops.”

She reports on a recent incident involving the Todd Tavern bar, when it was found 236 people were in the bar — licensed to serve only 100.

The Licensing Commission shut the bar for a week after the breach.

There is no requirement for people to buy food while they are drinking at the bars.

In the Lateline segment Lawyer Russell Goldflam tells Bolton that in the majority of the homicide cases in which he has been recently involved, “the perpetrator, the victim and the witnesses” all bought their alcohol at one of the three hotels.

And Lutheran Pastor Basil Schild speaks of the 80 funerals he has conducted for people who have died for alcohol-related causes. Such deaths, according to the program, are 14 times more likely to happen to Aboriginal people in Alice Springs than other Australians .

This morning on ABC Radio Government Minister Delia Lawrie told presenter Miranda Tetlow she would be putting ideas for alcohol reform out for public comment shortly.

But Russell Goldflam says the path to reducing alcohol-related damage is “not rocket science”: higher prices, shorter trading hours, grog-free welfare pay days, and a volumetric tax.