Senator Scott Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training has announced the Australian Liquor Stores Association’s (ALSA) latest report to government this week. The report was launched with ALSA to senators, MPs and industry executives in Parliament House, Canberra on Wednesday evening.

Produced by ALSA, the report – Australian Retail Liquor Market Insights – An Overview of the Australian Retail Liquor Industry, provides important market insights into the employment, licences, consumers, social contribution, taxation, costs, regulation, performance, outlook and trends of the liquor retail industry.

The report aims to provide government with an accurate and insightful look into the liquor retail industry ahead of the Harper review, as well as to defend recent claims by the anti-alcohol lobby group – the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, which accused Giuseppe Minissale, President of ALSA of having concerns about declines in underage drinking.

“It is an affront to me, my family and my staff when the taxpayer funded anti-alcohol lobby group, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, puts out a media release that accuses me of being concerned about declines in underage drinking because, and I quote, “because it impacts on their ability to recruit new drinkers”, Giuseppe said.

He added: “This could not be further from the truth. Nationally in the last six years, the number of my competitors of packaged liquor licences has grown by 20.2 per cent.

“Over that period per capita consumption has declined and government data shows that almost three quarters of under legal drinking age adolescents abstain from alcohol which is an increase of 29 per cent over the last six years in the number of minors who don’t drink.

“This is a very favourable trend in young people’s behaviour.

“The facts demonstrate that the community are more educated about alcohol and we are making much better choices than we have for many decades.”

While CEO of ALSA, Terry Mott told drinks bulletin: “The report is targeted at politicians, advisers and bureaucrats, to provide a snapshot of the social and economic contribution of the Retail Packaged Liquor sector to the fabric of the Australian way of life and to employment and the economy.”

“Alcohol consumption has been in decline for over forty years and the market mix has changed significantly along with product and the way retailing is done with the rapid uptake of disruptive on-line and mobile technologies and the way the industry is adapting to those opportunities.

“The publicly funded anti-alcohol advocacy lobby is out of touch with community wishes and it also highlights the taxation, red tape and regulatory issues as significant inhibitors to doing business in Australia.

“This has been a significant undertaking by ALSA and is referenced to publicly available government or independent sources wherever possible and/or derived numbers from publicly available data.”

The full report will be released shortly.