(Alco) Pop Culture

Binge drinking has been the most controversial topic of the year, reaching the political and public arenas with the launch of the ‘alcopops’ tax. It has been described as “drinking to get drunk” – a lot of alcohol over a short period of time. Although binge drinking affects people of all ages, studies indicate that one in six young people have more than 20 drinks a day at least once a month.

The National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction reports that the number of people drinking and the amount they drink has been continuously rising over the last 10 years and that now, by 18 years of age, about half of the young men and women in Australia are risky drinkers. This is despite the fact that binge drinking detrimentally affects people’s health, finances and personal life.

We look at how it impacts on our community by chatting to two people on the front line of dealing with binge drinkers in Parramatta.

Supt Robert Redfern heads up Parramatta Local Area Command and has been a police officer for 27 years. He is a strong voice in the community speaking out against alcohol-fuelled crime.

"We spend significant percentages of our resources in Parramatta addressing this problem of the consumption of alcohol and binge drinking. In fact, 75 per cent of all police interactions on the street are with alcohol-affected people – whether as victims, witnesses or perpetrators of crime.

The Bureau of Crime Statistics suggests that $50 million of police funding is spent each year on alcohol-related crime. That is 1000 cops who would be enormously valuable dealing with other crimes.

It is certainly a problem in Parramatta, but I would like to think that it is an improving problem. We have been working with a range of strategies for a long time now, like police patrolling the licensed venues and streets, voluntary lockouts
and recommending that council made the CBD an alcohol-free zone. We are beginning to see positive results from all of these things. The average rates ofassault, malicious damage and alcohol-related events linked to the licensed premises in this community are falling. Is it still a problem? Absolutely. Do I still need to expend a significant number of my resources to deal with those problems? Absolutely. That is why I have been speaking out in this community lately saying enough is enough. We have reached saturation point with licensed premises and we need to make sure it does not go further.

People affected by alcohol will do things that they would never do if they were not drinking. With many street-level robberies, assaults and malicious damage to property, it is alcohol that makes both the victim and the assailant.

It is generally the younger community, but I think it is broader than that. It would be fair to say that drinking has been part of the Australian culture for a very long time, but we have certainly seen as escalation in the last 10 years. There has been a social change from binge drinking being abnormal to being the norm.

Notwithstanding the crime impact, there is the social impact of those things in terms of damage, disease, social disruption and financial loss. It is a very insidious disease. While there are a lot of things the police can do, people have got to take greater personal responsibility for the extent they allow themselves to be affected by alcohol and therefore the extent to which they cause problems for others.

Ellen Smallacombe, 26, is the assistant manager at the Albion and has been working in bars for 8 years. She deals with binge drinkers first-hand.

"If someone is really visibly drunk they have to be removed from the premises straight away. Being kicked is very embarrassing, especially because we single people out of their groups and ask them to leave. They are forced to think 'I
didn't control myself well, I’m the drunk one, I have to leave when all my friends can stay'. You tend not to do it the next time.

This is a great community. It is so multicultural and one of the largest business and entertainment districts in Australia. People ought to be able to come and enjoy it peacefully and happily, not adversely impacted by people who consume alcohol." 

But we prefer to stop binge drinkers before they get to that visibly-intoxicated stage. We always recommend alternating alcohol with water and we have food available 24/7. Although our profits do come from the promoting and selling of alcohol, we prefer people to come out and stay for five hours and have a great time than stay one hour and get asked to leave because they have had too much to drink. There is so much going  on, like bands and sports, that alcohol should really not be the main reason to be here.

There is a big drinking culture in Sydney, with alcohol involved in pretty much every social outing. I think, with the way Australia is changing, the problems are getting bigger. Because you lose your inhibitions, there are so many dangerous things that can and do happen. You only have to look at what has been happening in Sydney over the last year to know that it is getting more dangerous to be out and not be aware. Unfortunately with some people, it does take a bad experience to realise that they shouldn’t be drinking so much.

We are only selling what is available. If other things are promoted and made, then we will serve them. Some wine companies are starting to bring out low- or no-alcohol wines and we offer things like mocktails. For a lot of boys, we will pretend to pour rum and coke when it is just coke. If they appear to be drinking,
it is socially acceptable. The peer pressure thing... you have issues with that in all situations in life. And it is just a matter of being the strong one and saying ‘I don't care that you guys are drinking. I am going to have a water'. It is up to you to make sure that you pace yourself."