John KayeGreens NSW MP John Kaye says it is clear the alcohol industry still calls the shots in NSW, after NSW Hospitality Minister Troy Grant rejected a recommendation that the controversial liquor promotion guidelines be immediately reviewed.
Documents obtained by the Greens last year revealed that the alcohol industry was allowed to make numerous changes to the draft guidelines before they were published. The final version failed to stop deep discounting, promotions that were attractive to children and two-for-one offers on supermarket shopper dockets.
The five year review of the Liquor Act conducted by Michael Foggo recommended that the guidelines be looked at again this year, a recommendation the Minister has chosen to ignore, delaying any action until 2016.
The NSW government has refused to immediately review the liquor promotion guidelines, despite Mr Foggo recognising that the process and outcome of the 2013 rewrite were inadequate.
The existing guidelines were largely written by the alcohol industry and fail to provide effective protection for young people and the vulnerable from aggressive marketing. Ignoring the recommendation that the guidelines be reviewed immediately will expose the community to another two years of shopper dockets, deep discounting and other dangerous marketing tactics.
Even under a new minister, the alcohol industry still calls the shots in NSW.
The Minister has hidden behind the entirely misleading ‘Supported in principle’ response to reject the recommendation that there is an urgent need to look again at the guidelines and the way they were written.
Minister Grant is clearly not proud of his work.
If he had been, he would have held onto his 55 page response until a day when the media cycle was dominated by serious corruption allegations.
He would not have released them at 3:17 pm.
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