Message on a bottle for binge drinkers

BOTTLES of alcoholic drinks could soon carry graphic pictures warning of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption as part of the Federal Government's latest series of measures to cut down on under-age and binge drinking.

At a meeting of state and federal leaders in Adelaide on Wednesday the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will tell his state colleagues he also wants national guidelines covering the responsible service of alcohol and uniform standards on the serving of alcohol to minors, including training for bar staff.

The Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, said yesterday there was "no coherent national approach to tackling binge drinking among young people".

"While young people must take greater personal responsibility for their behaviour, binge drinking is a community-wide problem that demands a community-wide response … What is lacking is a consistently tough message," Ms Roxon said.

The Federal Government is concerned that the penalties for bar attendants and licensees found to be selling alcohol to people under the age of 18 vary from state to state and wants the inconsistencies ironed out.

In NSW, a licensee found guilty of supplying alcohol to minors can be fined $6600 but in Queensland the fine is as high as $18,750 and in South Australia the penalty is $20,000.

"State and territory laws relating to secondary supply are currently inconsistent," Ms Roxon said. "For example, in some states, it is deemed acceptable if a minor is supervised by an adult. In some states, restrictions on supplying alcohol to minors only relate to licensed premises, or to public venues."

Labels on alcohol containers could mimic the graphic pictures on cigarette packets that are intended to scare people off smoking by showing them photographs of gangrenous limbs and ulcerated mouths.

The Federal Government is on a crusade against binge and under-age drinking. Earlier this month Mr Rudd said he wanted to "scare the living daylights" out of binge-drinking teenagers with a graphic Grim Reaper-style advertising campaign warning of the health risks of excessive alcohol consumption.

As part of a $53.5 million national binge-drinking strategy endorsed by cabinet earlier this month, the Government will require sporting clubs to introduce codes of conduct on responsible drinking behaviour for players, officials and members.

The latest plans came as two brewing companies announced they would ban "alcopops" - the high-energy, high-sugar alcoholic drinks favoured by many younger drinkers.

But the Government has not yet gone as far as expressing support for plans to put a 9pm curfew on alcohol advertising, a plan being investigated by a Senate committee.

That committee is also examining the effectiveness of putting warning labels on bottles and cans.

Related:

Ban on late spirit sales

Govt unveils $53m to target binge drinking

Millions abused during boozy Christmas hols: study

Stress and debt make Sydney a violent city

Divorce season

APPOINTMENTS with divorce lawyers are soaring, triggered by the stresses and strains of the Christmas break.

Some firms report a doubling in consultations during January compared with other months.

The new year is so notorious for divorce appointments that among the legal profession, the Monday of the first full week back in the office after the Christmas break is known as D-Day.

Figures from the Federal Magistrates Court, which deals with most divorce applications, show that January marks the start of a steady month-on-month surge in the number of people filing for a legal split.

In the last financial year, December had the lowest rate of divorce applications, with 2828 nationwide (excluding Western Australia which has its own family court).

In January, applications rose by more than 10 per cent to 3225, followed by similar rises month on month before peaking at 4486 in May.

A court spokeswoman said the statistics reflect that people first see a lawyer in January but may only lodge a divorce application weeks or months afterwards, once they have tried and failed with counselling and mediation.

Paul Doolan, a partner with Sydney divorce firm Barkus Edwards Doolan, said: "The first few weeks of January are always our busiest time. We get a large spike in people wanting advice. Christmas can be a real pressure cooker situation for some people. They are thrown together for an extended amount of time and at the end of it someone just says, 'That's it, I can't take it any more and I want a divorce'."

"For other people, it has been building up for some time and they make a new year's resolution to get out of the marriage and act on that."

Frank Egan, CEO of LAC Lawyers, said the company sees double the average number of clients in the first weeks of the year.

Mr Egan said that as well as people spending a lot of time together over Christmas, there are related factors, including alcohol, arguments over money, credit card debt and problems with relatives.

"Some people are already separated and have been holding off on the divorce, but then Christmas comes and the arguments start over who is going to have the kids, who gets to take them on holiday and what's happening with the money and that drives them into finally filing for divorce."

Lawyers say women outnumber men two to one when it comes to filing for divorce in the new year. Anne Hollonds, CEO of Relationships Australia, said its phones "run hot" after the Christmas break.

Stress and debt make Sydney a violent city

SYDNEY is an angry city with longer working hours, climbing levels of debt and traffic snarls.

People are trying to cope with increasing stress that leads to alcohol-fuelled violence and a less tolerant society, a sociologist has warned.

James Arvanitakis, from the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney, said Sydneysiders were increasingly feeling the pressures of a competitive society, getting more and more frustrated with everyday annoyances such as public transport delays and feeling increasingly time poor.

"Even though there's quite a lot of wealth, people feel like there's this feeling of competitiveness and that's both on a professional and personal level," Dr Arvanitakis said.

"It's an angry city. It's a combination of the number of work hours and increasing levels of debt and people are feeling the ongoing pressure to buy more and more consumer goods."

Tony Grabs, the director of trauma at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst, said the number of people admitted to the hospital with injuries from alcohol- and drug-related violence had risen dramatically.

From October 2003 to September 2004, 120 patients were admitted to St Vincent's following an assault or stabbing, Dr Grabs said.

Of those, 54 had been alcohol- or drug-related attacks.

But from October 2006 to September last year, the number of admissions was 197 and those related to alcohol or drugs had nearly doubled to 90.

Dr Grabs believes the latter figures could be even higher. They did not take into account patients who presented to the hospital but were not admitted.

"Over three years, that's a dramatic increase," Dr Grabs said.

Dr Grabs said many city office workers and professionals used alcohol as a way to release work stress but said they were drinking at more harmful levels than they used to.

"It's a fast life," he said of Sydney. "With a fast life there is a perception that they need to unwind.

"Unfortunately, they're unwinding with alcohol."

Dr Grabs said a relatively strong local economy with good employment levels was keeping the violence from getting out of control but he feared what would happen should a recession hit, combined with interest rate increases.

He also said Sydney's cultural mix could sometimes fuel some of the assaults and stabbings.

Figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics show a rise in assaults - both domestic-violence related and non-domestic related - over the past 10 years, and police agree alcohol-related violence is a problem.