Hon Peter Dunne

Associate Minister of Health

Address to Open the World Health Organisation, Western Pacific Region Technical Meeting

on a Global Alcohol Strategy

Rendezvous Hotel, Auckland

9.20am, Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Thank you for your kind introduction and thanks to all of you for making your way from around the Western Pacific Region to attend this meeting.

I know that we have people from distant countries such as China, Mongolia, the republic of Korea and Japan, and also nearer countries such as Australia and the Pacific Islands.

However far you have travelled to be here today, I want to warmly welcome you all to New Zealand.

I would like to congratulate the Western Pacific Region member states particularly for the work they have done over the last several years in working to address the harmful consequences of the misuse of alcohol.

This culminated in the production of the Regional Strategy to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harm.

As it stated in this strategy, the harmful consequences of the misuse of alcohol are among the most significant risks to health globally.

As far back as 2002, the World Health Report stated that the harmful use of alcohol is responsible for 4 percent of total disease burden and over 3 percent of premature deaths.

This places alcohol in the same order as tobacco and so it is indeed timely that the World Health Organisation is working to develop global agreement on how to reduce alcohol-related harm.

Over the next three days you will be addressing issues such as the size and magnitude of alcohol-related health and social harms, defining what challenges require global attention and, given the diversity of member states, how a global strategy should address gaps and barriers at a national and regional level.

You will be looking at how a global strategy can contribute to increased political commitment, strengthened health sector response, and provide support to community based action.

As well as how this strategy will address availability, marketing and pricing policies

The task will not be an easy one given the complex nature of the issues surrounding alcohol.

This is why it is so important that discussion is occurring at this global level, with so many countries represented at this regional consultation meeting, as well as at the other five regional meetings being organised by the World Health Organization.

In New Zealand the issue is no different than that faced by many other countries.

Over 80 percent of New Zealanders report that they have drunk alcohol in the last year and the volume of pure alcohol available per person aged 15 years is now the highest since 1994.

While most people drink without harming themselves or others, the misuse of alcohol by a minority results in considerable health, social and economic costs to those individuals, their families and the wider community.

No doubt as part of your discussions over the next few days you will be considering whether the problem is about alcohol consumption, or patterns of drinking, or both.

I was interested to see that the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, a few weeks ago, released revised guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol.

These guidelines suggest that for healthy men and women, drinking no more than two standard drinks on any day reduces the lifetime risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury and that drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion reduces the risk of alcohol-related injury.

The guidelines also suggested that some people in the community should not drink alcohol, including children under 15, and pregnant or breast-feeding women.

These guidelines further emphasise that while, overall, drinking is an issue, it is also important to consider drinking patterns – both in terms of the frequency and the amount of alcohol consumed.

In New Zealand, approximately 15 percent of drinkers drink alcohol seven or more times a week and 25 percent of drinkers report drinking large amounts of alcohol on a typical drinking session.

When considering drinking patterns and potential responses, it is also important to recognise the different drinking patterns displayed by different cultural and age groups.

For example, while youth, Maori and Pacific people are less likely to have consumed alcohol in the last 12 months than other groups, those that do drink are more likely to consume a large amount in a typical drinking session.

I have long been concerned that our approach to resolving alcohol-related problems in our society has been too broad brush.

While society as a whole does bear a responsibility, I think we need to be doing far more to target at-risk groups and to develop programmes specifically tailored to their needs and particular problems.

Over the last 20 years we have progressively liberalised the accessibility of alcohol in New Zealand.

The purchase age was reduced from 20 to 18, advertising of alcohol and was permitted, and the selling of alcohol expanded to a much wider range of premises.

For most people that was a welcome move to which they have responded positively and responsibly.

That has placed in stark relief the misuse of alcohol by a minority, in particular, binge drinking by groups of young people, and the consequent social and health problems that are emerging.

It is important that our legislation regarding the sale and supply of alcohol is informed by expert evidence and draws on local and international best practice, rather than relying on prejudice or ideas that have a “feel good” flavour to them.

Consequently the New Zealand Law Commission has been asked to review the regulatory framework under which alcohol is supplied and promoted.

This is a ‘first principles’ review which provides an opportunity to reflect on the frameworks in place to control alcohol.

It is taking into account contemporary use patterns, societal attitudes, new evidence and consistency with other legislative frameworks, all with a view to preventing and reducing harms from alcohol now and into the future.

The review will both assess and request public feedback on a wide range of issues that are problematical for alcohol policy – for example, whether there should be a minimum drinking age and if so what it should be; the responsibility of parents for controlling the drinking behaviour of young people; hours of opening for premises that sell alcohol and how many of these premises there should be; whether all types of alcohol product should be available from all outlets; the role of taxing and pricing on alcohol-related harm; and whether advertising should or should not be allowable.

The recommendations of this review will help inform the development of New Zealand’s regulatory framework for alcohol in the future.

However, regulation is only one of a wide range of responses required to address alcohol-related harm.

As outlined in the World Health Organisation’s discussion document, it is essential that communities are encouraged and empowered to identify and respond to issues at the local level.

The development of a global strategy will assist this to occur by providing recognition and support at an international level of the importance of community action.

This technical consultation meeting, while principally about the development of the World Health Organisation’s strategy, is also an opportunity for our New Zealand delegation to extend the national conversation about how we deal with alcohol in this country.

It is an opportunity for further open discussion about both our achievements and our shortcomings.

The sharing of experience and ideas with colleagues from other jurisdictions is pivotal to the maintenance of healthy alcohol policies and legislative frameworks.

I am pleased that the growing awareness of the public health impact of the harmful use of alcohol is leading to the development of a Global Alcohol Strategy to address these issues.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the World Health Organization for its continuing support in taking forward this agenda and wish you all a very successful three days of consultation on this important topic – reducing alcohol related harm.

And so it is with pleasure that I now declare your meeting open.

ENDS

© Scoop Media