Sweeping restrictions on the sale and supply of alcohol in the outback SA town of Coober Pedy have taken effect from last Monday.
What has been described as the toughest grog laws in the country have been imposed by Liquor and Gambling Commissioner Paul White in an effort to curb alcohol abuse amongst Aboriginal people, even those from inter-state.
Mr White was quoted on www.sbs.com.au as saying:
“I’ve imposed a condition that says if you reside at one of the prescribed lands, which roughly speaking is the APY Lands, or some of the Northern Territory communities close to the South Australian border or Western Australia, then you cannot purchase take away alcohol from the outlets in Coober Pedy,” says Mr White.
What do the restrictions entail?
There will be a complete ban on cask wine and bottled wine and spirits will be limited to one 750ml bottle per person, per day.
Drinkers will have to produce a photo ID when buying liquor.
The restrictions will also include a complete ban of take away alcohol for people from dry communities and a refusal of sales to people suspected of travelling to dry communities.
According to Mr White although these restrictions seem extreme, Mr White said these restrictions weren’t imposed on these communities but that they rather requested these restrictions. Communities requested the support to assist in reducing the inflow of grog. Commissioner White will review the restrictions in 6 months.
Mayor Steve Baines agreed with Mr White that this is a huge problem which requires attention.
Mayor Baines was quoted as saying,
“In the last 11 months there have been 18,200 casks of wine sold. Now we’ve got a population of 1,700 people. That’s 500 casks of wine per week, on top of 18,400 bottles,” says Mr Baines.
Aboriginal legal advocates and the community think Coober Pedy’s been overwhelmed by people escaping grog bans elsewhere.
“The illnesses that people get, the alcohol related violence that flows from alcohol getting into dry communities is really very severe and a very serious problem, and we think that an important impulse to stop this is to get a summit of all communities, get them all together at the same table and talking to government authorities about more effective rules to stop the liquor getting into dry communities because that’s what they want,” says Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement member Chris Charles.
Detox and rehabilitation facilities are expected to be inundated with calls for rehab services as people’s alcohol source is cut off due to the restrictions. Medical facilities and rehab facilities are apparently braced for this influx.
The article goes on to explain,
“We don’t not have a single rehabilitation service specifically for Aboriginal people in this state, and whether that’s all the other health and allied services that we need, we cannot fix the problem simply by these sort of bans; they are part of the solution, they are not the solution,” says Greens MP Tammy Franks.
Federal funding allocated 7 years ago for rehabilitation facilities remains unspent.