1.00pm
A Health Ministry-funded lobby group is calling for an across-the-board rise in tax on alcoholic drinks and a minimum price on premixed "alcopops" to curb their popularity among teenagers.
Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams said today the group would issue a paper next month to a ministerial action group on alcohol
and drugs, calling for a review of the way alcohol was taxed.
Ms Williams told NZPA alcohol was currently taxed in steps depending on alcohol volume, resulting in high alcohol drinks, such as spirits, being too cheap.
She said tax rates across the bands should be flattened, so all alcohol was taxed at the same price per volume, and then raised.
However some low alcohol drinks such as ready-mixed spirit drinks -- known as "alcopops" -- would remain relatively cheap, meaning a minimum price was needed to curb their availability to young people.
"In Auckland we know from our research these drinks are being sold for about a dollar a bottle. That's pocket money really."
She said the drinks' sweet palatable flavour and cheap price made them very appealing to teenagers and they were acting as a gateway to stronger forms of alcohol.
The drinks are usually about 5 per cent alcohol.
She said a minimum price would also affect beer which was also sold very cheaply.
But Beer Wine and Spirits Council chief executive Nicki Stewart said raising taxes would not deter problem drinkers, who were not put off by price.
"They should be looking at ideas which target at-risk problem drinkers not the responsible majority," she told NZPA.
The proposed plan for a minimum price on ready-mixed spirit drinks missed the point that the drinks were low in alcohol and less harmful for teenagers than drinks like hard spirits, she said.
She said the fact that Alcohol Healthwatch were still wholly funded by the Health Ministry to advocate against the alcohol industry was a sore point for many in the industry.
- NZPA
Herald Feature: Alcohol in NZ
