Towards Healthy Drinking in Australia — the Rum Colony
Changing attitudes and perspectives in modern Australian culture
Every year as summer falls like a heavy, warm blanket over the north-east coast, I swap the stifling streets of Brisbane for the airy hills of the Northern Rivers. The region straddles the divide between urban and rural, with small communities tucked into the hills and valleys of its natural splendour. The area has a strong blue-collar background, with levels of household income and educational attainment below the state average and a high representation of tradies and labourers, as well as social and health service workers. As is common to much of regional Australia, particularly areas with a blue-collar demographic, the Northern Rivers has a strong drinking culture. Socioeconomic conditions have deteriorated as the region has been wracked by a toxic cocktail of flooding, fires, and inflating housing costs. This destruction has cascaded onto the economic and social foundations of the community. It has undermined the financial stability and mental wellbeing of locals, causing an increase in alcohol use and its associated costs: stresses on medical services, crime, domestic violence, and further exacerbation of financial and psychological distress.
“the circumstances that facilitate this destructive culture are packed and parcelled on to future generations, leading to compounding intergenerational disadvantage and inequality”
Binge-drinking is a pervasive part of Australian culture, particularly for lower socioeconomic quintiles and rural communities. In much of Australia, but particularly in these communities, alcohol is not only appropriate for most social events, but also a form of social currency and an important milestone of maturity. Social pressures towards drinking often start in high school, at ages as early as 15. Its consequences typically set in early with deteriorating school performance and mental wellbeing. This can lead to the development of negative coping mechanisms and addiction, and a downward spiral into mental, social, and financial decay. While the bulk of the costs of alcohol abuse are visited upon drinkers themselves, they also inevitably impact their family and peers, causing ripples of harm to spread across the community. Not only is the wellbeing of the drinker and their community jeopardised, but the circumstances that facilitate this destructive culture are packed and parcelled on to future generations, leading to compounding intergenerational disadvantage and inequality.
On top of its psychological and social impacts, binge-drinking has a high financial cost in the form of lost income, medical and legal bills, and alcohol purchases. These costs can quickly become overwhelming — especially in a community of blue-collar workers on award wages in a time of rapidly inflating living costs. While alcohol may not conventionally be a priority in household finances, it is an infamously inflexible good. Not only is there effectively a social mandate to participate in the binge culture, but it is also an addictive substance — it continues to dig its hooks deeper into our psyche even as its harms upon our financial and psychological wellbeing grow. A glimpse behind the thin veil of cultural grandeur that has camouflaged our boisterous binge-drinking culture reveals it to be a pervasive and effective poverty trap.
And yet at the farm on which I’ve toiled away all summer, barely a drop of this alcohol culture can be found. Many of the people I’ve worked beside can count the nights they spent drinking last year on a single hand.
“many former participants in Australia’s heavy drinking scene have grown tired of the impact of hangovers on their functionality and wellbeing”
Lucas is a local of Lismore, a proxy-manager of this farm, and a previous student of Alstonville High School, where the binge culture thrives. And yet he has spent the last seven years sober, and it is a lifestyle he has promoted amongst his staff members. As was the norm among his classmates, Lucas started drinking in high-school and was heavily involved in the binge-drinking scene. He has watched many of his peers go through the struggles associated with alcohol abuse, and still does to this day. After a long weekend of drinking, his mates often struggle to attend work, look after their health, or financially keep their head above water. His own move towards sobriety was motivated by his struggles to achieve goals and have hobbies whilst simultaneously being ill and exhausted from excessive alcohol consumption. Like Lucas, many former participants in Australia’s heavy drinking scene have grown tired of the impact of hangovers on their functionality and wellbeing.
He is part of a sober curiosity trend currently developing in Australia,; one that cuts across both regional and socioeconomic divides. The younger generations, especially our own, are ushering in a new cultural trend of sober curiosity. Multiple studies conducted over the last decade have indicated a downward trend in alcohol consumption, particularly among young people.
I have encountered many of the significant harms of a toxic alcohol culture throughout my community. Up until this seemingly delicate bubble of rationality arose right in the midst of my own workplace I had reason to doubt such a trend could occur, let alone trickle down to our little corner of Australia. Why now? Have our governments finally stumbled across a golden strategy? Are the younger generations shifting their culture and pastimes away from alcohol? Have we simply absorbed enough pain to say enough is enough? And how do we make this movement as inclusive as possible, to perhaps ensure the intergenerational poverty trap of alcohol abuse can be wholly ended in our lifetimes?
We typically rely on our governments to intervene in social endemics of this nature, to provide the regulation and mechanisms to ensure a socially optimal outcome will be attained. Historically, we have reason to suspect they have been unsuccessful, at least in part. Pricing mechanisms have been the backbone of alcohol regulation in Australia. There has been controversy over the efficacy, equity, and targets of taxation policies, but in general the consensus is that responsible alcohol policy starts with getting the price right.
There is reason to question the efficacy of taxation, particularly in trying to target harmful drinkers with alcohol dependency. The Alcohol and Drug Foundation outlines three objectives or outcomes for taxation: (1) to decrease consumption by increasing price; (2) to raise revenue; (3) to offset the social costs of consumption. The structure of the policy will determine which of these objectives are prioritised for various groups of consumers.
“Pricing is definitely a part of the solution, but it won’t go the full distance for addressing problematic drinking”
But what does this look like in practice? A brief sojourn into public economics illustrates that the outcome of a taxation policy ultimately depends on producer and consumer elasticity towards changing prices. While the consumption of standard drinkers will decline significantly, demand will remain roughly consistent for hazardous drinkers suffering from alcohol dependency. The largest effect will be the redistribution of income from the pockets of hazardous drinkers to government coffers. Price hikes provide a substantial disincentive to standard drinkers while simply draining the pockets of those in a more vulnerable position.
From my perspective as an economics major, I tend to lean towards market-based pricing solutions as the ultimate lever in determining economic behaviour. But it must be noted that in this scenario, classical and blunt pricing schemes are not winning the day for hazardous drinkers. Pricing is definitely a part of the solution, but it won’t go the full distance for addressing problematic drinking. Instead, a policy that compliments taxation with other schemes directly targeting the drinking behaviour of vulnerable groups would likely prove more effective.
Most analysts indicate that the primary driver of sober curiosity is growing health consciousness in regards to physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. There are a few necessary elements to this shift that I can identify. The first is growing awareness towards the prevalence of alcohol abuse and its dangers;, short-term and long-term, personal and communal. The second is the increased access to support and treatment for hazardous drinkers. The third, perhaps the most difficult to identify, is a shift in social norms and expectations for alcohol use. Each of these elements require distinct strategies and resources.
“Australians have been able to establish online forums and support groups for those struggling with alcohol abuse”
In regard to the first two elements, Australia has made substantial progress. Awareness towards alcohol misuse has grown alongside general mental health awareness, and this has been accompanied by an expanding mental healthcare sector. Australia’s National Alcohol Strategy for 2019–2029 is a promising sign in this area, indicating a shift towards a more mixed policy approach with a wide-ranging (if not somewhat vague) set of objectives: improving communication and awareness, providing treatment and support, and using additional strategies to limit availability and promotion of alcohol. This strategy will presumably build upon existing public health and education campaigns, and direct more resources to care and rehabilitation facilities. As it is, Australian schools have recently provided various educational campaigns on mental health and drug abuse, and in recent years mental health services have been granted greater priority and have expanded. Government intervention has been frequently supplemented by private and community-driven initiatives. As an example, social media has played an indispensable role in facilitating access to support and mental healthcare. Through this avenue, Australians have been able to establish online forums and support groups for those struggling with alcohol abuse, and to provide access to resources, programs, and mental health services to increasingly remote parts of our communities.
In regard to the last, the sobriety trend is indicative of a social shift in our norms and expectations. This shift has served to both dispel our romantic delusions regarding our nation’s casual alcohol abuse and remove the stigma against addiction and treatment — not only are we more aware of our problems, but we face less social barriers in seeking help for them.
As acknowledged above, government public health campaigns and initiatives have likely contributed at least in part. However, the widespread distribution of the sobriety trend suggests that social media has played a dominant role. In addition to its role in distributing mental health services, social media is a crucial component of our social fabric. Not only does it bridge international divides, but it plays an increasingly pervasive role in examining and advertising our private lives; social trends have been graced with significant power through a new wholly pervasive and unrelenting form of peer pressure. Another contributor is that, in an age of intensive social media use, alcohol has become less essential as a social buffer, effectively replaced by the distances of virtual interaction.
“perhaps our most powerful tool… is in using our increasingly accessible forms of communication to tell stories, build understanding, normalise conversations about mental struggles, and challenge the authority of obsolete cultural norms”
On this note, perhaps our most powerful tool — one which we have used to great effect — is in using our increasingly accessible forms of communication to tell stories, build understanding, normalise conversations about mental struggles, and challenge the authority of obsolete cultural norms. We can be proud to be a part of this when we are accepting of our own struggles, open to acknowledging them and discussing them with our peers, and welcoming to those with their own stories to tell.
Financial concerns have been identified as another motivating factor for sobriety, as substantial alcohol costs are competing with steadily inflating housing and mortgage costs for prioritisation in household finances. For some in the Northern Rivers, this may well be a powerful motivating factor in the Northern Rivers, given its acute problems with housing affordability. However, as discussed above, this is more likely to apply to standard drinkers than riskier drinkers.
These initiatives and resources have contributed to substantial progress in the promotion of a healthy drinking culture, as evidenced by our current sobriety trend. However, while the sober curiosity trend has made progress across much of Australia, it continues to struggle in reaching those with a greater degree of physical or social isolation. A trend of decreased alcohol consumption has been reported for most drinkers in younger generations; however, those from a background of alcohol misuse are typically continuing along a path of deterioration and isolation, falling yet further behind their peers.
This is perhaps attributable accountable to a lack of sufficient resources and support, the absence of appropriate approaches, or insufficient cultural and social sensitivity for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. A study conducted on alcohol use disorders (AUD) in Australia indicated that while disorders were relatively common they were often undetected, requiring a high degree of suspicion for sufferers to acknowledge the issue and seek diagnosis or treatment. Even where problematic drinkers may be open to treatment, difficulties may be compounded for communities with shortages of resources and support groups, impeded both by access and social stigma. This is particularly the case for regional communities, as they are more isolated from social movements and have limited access to services for mental health and substance abuse issues. There can also be greater stigma in small, tight-knit rural communities, in which it is difficult to maintain anonymity while seeking support and social norms endorse heavy drinking to build camaraderie and gain respect. Ms Shanna Whan recently was recognized as a finalist for the NSW Rural Women of the Year Award, for her efforts in establishing an Sober in the Country, a volunteer-led alcohol support group currently supporting 250 people. While this is a heart-warming demonstration of ordinary people stepping in to address a social failure, it demonstrates how limited support networks and services are in these areas, and how far they need to expand to extend the sober curiosity movement to Australia’s margins. The intergenerational poverty trap is yet to disperse, and may be digging its talons deeper into those on the margins of our communities.
“ordinary people are integral to providing the necessary conditions of compassion, respect, and expectation”
Where does this leave governments and individuals in the continuing struggle against alcohol misuse? Into the future, the government could play more of a subsidiary role to grassroots community movements such as that of Sober in the Country. Both within local communities and increasingly across digital ones, our impetus towards responsible alcohol use seems to be driven by either individual initiatives to build support networks or by exertion of social pressures. Essentially, even while government support in managing pricing and providing resources remains essential, ordinary people are integral to providing the necessary conditions of compassion, respect, and expectation within our own spheres of social influence. Certainly regulatory tools will remain essential to safeguarding our progress, but it seems to be the less tangible tools of compassion and respect which are guiding us towards better outcomes.
Clare Johns is in her final year of PPE at UQ. She is passionate about social issues, showcasing this here in her debut piece for Statecraft.
Thanks to Elliott Collins and Phoebe Meyer Elks for editing this piece!
