Government loses playbook on sponsorship game changer

Just a day after announcing a $25 million sports sponsorship initiative that kicks alcohol sponsorship to the curb, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek seems intent on tripping up her own team mates, making statements that surely run counter to the intent and messaging of the previous day’s launch. As is too often the case, this is a government that just can’t get out of its own way.

I so badly want to congratulate the Commonwealth for something.

Credit where credit is due, the Australian National Preventative Health Agency did more than just kick a goal on Saturday when it announced a $25 million sponsorship deal, which will see 12 national sporting organisations including Football Federation of Australia, Basketball Australia and Swimming Australia cut their ties with the alcohol industry.

The announcement is a game changer; the first step on the road to ending the alcohol industry’s sponsorship of sport in Australia.

It is a very significant first step.

Which makes the Health Minister Tanya Plibersek’s remarks as reported in the Courier Mail, The Canberra Times and the Advertiser on Monday 25 June, all the more disappointing, not to mention baffling.

As reported in the Courier Mail, Ms Plibersek said, “We think banning alcohol sponsorship is a step too far”, and in case that comment was too ambiguous, followed that by saying the Government had “no intention of banning alcohol advertising”.

How can the Government lose the playbook 24 hours after the launch? Why would the Health Minister feel it necessary to draw a line in the sand, to be so explicit?

Irrespective of the Government’s long term plans, why make a comment that runs so counter to the messaging and intent of the just announced sponsorship deal?

Either the Health Minister doesn’t really support the deal, didn’t read the memo, or is in urgent need of a media training refresher course.

Let’s return to the importance of Saturday’s announcement.

The marketing and promotion of alcohol in this country is all pervasive.  It’s all around us and impossible to escape.

However, just as inescapable is the fact that alcohol use and misuse is the cause of substantial harms to the Australian community, with young people particularly exposed.

Eighty per cent of the alcohol consumed by people aged 14-24 is consumed in ways that put the drinker’s (and others’) health at risk.

The 12 sporting organisations are to be congratulated for their progressive and deliberate decision to separate their code from alcohol marketing.

Together, these sporting codes enjoy the highest team and individual participation rates in the country.

Their stance sends a clear message to all Australians as well as to their spectators, juniors and senior players. When it comes to alcohol sponsorship, these sporting bodies place health above corporate dollars.

And that’s the exact purpose of this funding; to reduce the exposure of young people to alcohol imagery and branding and to reduce the links between alcohol and sporting and cultural events that young people are involved in.

Predictably, this move will be met with strong opposition not only by the remaining sporting codes and clubs currently enjoying the corporate support of the alcohol industry, but by the alcohol industry as well.

What I didn’t expect was that the initiative would be undermined by the Commonwealth Government less than 24 hours after its launch.

Providing $25 million to serve as alternative to alcohol sponsorship to 12 sporting organisations was always going to be the first step on a much longer journey.

However, it is disappointing the Government managed to stumble only one day after the announcement.

The tagline of the Government’s National Binge Drinking strategy is ‘be the influence’.

Perhaps the Health Minister could keep that slogan in mind the next time she’s speaking to the media.