Somewhat of a media frenzy has stirred this week after the release of FARE’s (Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education) ‘Annual Alcohol Report’ Wednesday night.

Examples of claims made by the report include those such as the “alcohol industry makes political donations to influence policy”, according to participants, as well as that the “alcohol industry targets people under the age of 18”.

While contentious claims made by the report have garnered the attention of media, the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) has hit back, saying the report’s findings should be dismissed.

AHA CEO, Bradley Woods says the report paid participants of the poll “cash rewards” in return for their answers.

“The 6^th FARE poll was carried out by Galaxy Research online using PureProfile – a commercial online site that recruits survey participants by paying respondents cash to complete questionnaires”, Mr. Woods said.

“Promotion to potential survey respondents includes lines like “your answers put you into groups for future campaigns, the more profile questions you answer, the more groups you belong to, the more campaigns you will be targeted for, the more cash you earn”.”

Mr. Woods has also condemned the report’s use of questions, which he says were specifically designed “to provoke a sensational level of fear and misinformation about alcohol consumption and the alcohol industry amongst ordinary Australians.”

Furthermore, findings from the report were based on a sample size of 1,843 respondents distributed across the ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA. Views from the Northern Territory for example were based on a pool of only 20 participants. Mr. Woods says “The survey’s distribution of respondents is at odds with Australia’s population demographics and disproportionately collected data from states and territories.”

Mr. Woods concluded: “Independent, non-discriminatory and random polling is the only type of data that should be used to create a snapshot of population policy views.”

Mr. Woods also pointed to contradictory recent Government findings, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which show that Australians are drinking less alcohol overall than at any time in the last 15 years; a stark contrast to the 75 per cent of participants FARE said believe Australia has a problem with excess drinking or alcohol abuse.

The work of the anti-alcohol lobby, headed by CEO Michael Thorn, has long been speculated by the alcohol industry. The report is expected to spark further response from the industry.