Late last week, the Victorian Parliament passed the Liquor Control Reform Amendment Bill 2021 (legislation.vic.gov.au). Many groups, including the Dalgarno Institute, led by Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) lobbied hard to see some serious changes be made to the proposed Bill, to give it more teeth for better public health and safety. Changes that would focus more on preventative health measures, not mere damage management ones, or worse, a further unfettering of the already unaccountable alcohol industry.

Some of the key issues being advocated for, but not adopted, were amendments to the bill that would include i) a delay between alcohol order and delivery, ii) online age verification.

Despite these amendments not making it in, there remains a couple of important changes to liquor law as the following reflect…

• New laws for online alcohol sale and delivery:

• A new offence for delivery of alcohol ordered online to a person who is intoxicated
• Requiring same day alcohol deliveries to not be left unattended
• For first time deliveries, requiring the person delivering alcohol to see an evidence of age document from the person who placed the order

• Applications for packaged liquor outlets larger than 750 square metres to provide a Community Impact Assessment (CIA), showing they have consulted with the local community

It has been noted by FARE that the government also committed to reporting back to Parliament in a year about the implementation of new laws for alcohol delivery. There is also expected to be consultation soon on changes to the Regulations that support the Liquor Act.

One other key reality that has been slowly emerging over the last 10 or so years, is that the public discourse on the harms of alcohol has shifted and not just in the political or health arena. The community are more aware, and subsequently more vocal, about the ongoing harm being done by alcohol.

Covid-19 has created a new set of issues and problems that have seen a new arena for acute and even chronic consumption of alcohol. With an online marketing frenzy we have witnessed unfettered alcohol advertising ‘popping’ about every 35 seconds and next to zero accountability in alcohol delivery practices. Not to mention the easy side-stepping of any RSA (Responsible Serving of Alcohol) Laws at every turn when delivering alcohol to residences, of already well ‘stocked’ bingeing punters.

The Dalgarno Institute continues to both collaborate with and support various groups, networks and initiatives that seek to rein in the harms caused by an largely self-regulating addiction for profit industry.