Darwin Bottle Shops Can Do Better Than a 'No Car, No Cask' Policy

As of yesterday, three BWS liquor stores in Darwin are no longer selling cask wine to customers without a car. Signs posted at the drive-through stores in Parap, Palmerston, and Darwin Airport explain the ban is to "assist the community in minimising alcohol related harm," which implicitly means harm to Aboriginal communities. On the one hand this is a smart scheme. The management of BWS wants little to do with Aboriginal alcoholism but they can't just stop selling to certain people. So this strategy targets anyone likely to have a drinking problem by assuming they don't have a car. Cunning, yes?

Except that it doesn't work. Dozens of drive-through bottle shops throughout the Northern Territory have enforced a No Car, No Cask policy for years, only to find problem drinkers borrow cars to purchase booze. Back in May 2013 journalist Eleanor Hogan described watching mini-buses full of aboriginal drinkers lining up outside a drive-through in Alice Springs. And those who couldn't fit in the mini buses, "wave down taxicabs so they can buy grog from the drive-through bottle shop."

For Charles Darwin University's Professor Richard Midford, who specialises in alcohol harm reduction, car-pooling is actually the hard way to get around bans. "Drinkers are flexible," he says. "The policy only affects three shops so drinkers can easily go to another." He's right. In the Darwin suburb of Parap, there's two bottle shops within 200 metres of the BWS while in Palmerston it's only 100 metres to another liquor store. At Darwin Airport there's actually a Celebrations franchise less than 20 metres from BWS on the same block. "And while I think anything to reduce drinking is good," says Richard, "I'm ambivalent about this. I think BWS want to look like they're doing something but this doesn't go far enough."

For Richard, some other options that could be considered include setting a higher floor price on cask wine, as well as setting drink prices by their alcoholic content. Other areas throughout the Territory are also completely dry, with grim penalties for contraband booze. "And these measures work," he says. "Restrictions generally reduce problems. That's less hospital admissions, lowered incidences of fetal alcohol syndrome, and reduced crime, with a whole lot of knock-on effects. There's no magic bullet but every measure brings a solution closer."

Sign in an NT intervention area. Image via Flickr user dutytodo

Throughout the Territory these policies have been long considered controversial. As a result Indigenous organisations such as Stop the Intervention are dedicated to, amongst other things, repealing alcohol bans. Instead of bans they recommend "allowing communities to develop local solutions driven by the appropriate needs of the community." Interestingly Richard also agrees, saying "we should talk to them about what works and what doesn't." As he points out, these communities vote too.

Tauto Sansbury is the organiser behind the Freedom protest group. They advocate for Aboriginal autonomy, particularly in the face of government intervention. And like Richard, he doesn't think muck of BWS' new policy. "It just sounds like the Joe Hockey comment on poor people not driving," he says. "Just another policy from people who don't get it." Tauto also agrees that anti-drinking measures should be in Aboriginal hands. "We're missing the mark," he says, "because Aboriginal people are treated as though we're in kindergarten. We need long-term resources, not more policies devised by non-Aboriginals."

Solutions aside, there's no doubt about the problem. Last week an ongoing study called the Lililwan Project released their latest findings from Western Australia's remote Kimberley region. Between 2002 and 2003, 13 out of 108 Aboriginal children were born with fetal alcohol syndrome. That's one in eight pregnant mothers drinking enough for their children to be born with deformed facial features and learning difficulties.

"Aboriginal alcoholism is just devastating," Richard says simply. "I think BWS are doing a good thing but if they're serious they can go further." In the very least he recommends evaluating what changes, if any, are seen. "This way they'll know if the policy was successful, but I doubt they'll even do that."

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