Does Baird have bottle for more than just a grand gesture?

Later this week the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), will host a National Summit on reducing violence against women and their children. With the nation’s full attention, the summit will provide governments across the country another opportunity to take concrete action to prevent family violence.

And that they must, if the summit is to be more than an empty grand gesture; a photo op for our Prime Minister and the chance for our State and Territory leaders to strut the national stage.

The scourge of family violence is a complex problem; quite literally a matter of life and death. Its victims pay the highest toll, too often their own lives. The scars, physical and mental, are long lasting and often transmit across generations.

This is an issue deserving of more than a talkfest. What we need is definitive action. We also need the willingness of all stakeholders to view and address the issue through more than one lens.

Not to diminish or undermine the gender equality framing of government and community action, but to listen to experts in alcohol and drugs, mental health, and other fields have to say about the solutions.

For my organisation, it has been extremely disappointing that the role of alcohol continues to be neglected in the ongoing family violence narrative.

Once again I fear it will not be adequately addressed in this week’s National Summit. I wrote to the Prime Minister and State and Territory leaders last week expressing those very concerns.

Alcohol is a significant risk factor for family violence, responsible for up to 65 per cent of domestic incidents reported to police and between 15 to 47 per cent of child abuse cases reported in Australia. More than a third of intimate partner homicides involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator.

Last year, FARE developed a National framework for action to prevent alcohol-related family violence, which proposes policies that would fix the way alcohol is taxed, restrict alcohol’s availability, and stop the sexualisation of women in alcohol advertising. These actions will have a tangible impact on reducing and preventing family violence.

The Senate’s 2015 Finance and Public Administration References Committee’s Final Report into domestic violence in Australia noted this, saying that the Commonwealth Government should consider FARE’s Framework as part of efforts to reduce alcohol’s contribution to family violence.

Despite this, government plans have yet to adequately acknowledge alcohol’s involvement in family violence, or more importantly to embrace strategies to reduce these risks.

On Thursday, our leaders must ask themselves, ‘What actions will we take to prevent violence against women and children?’ Just as critically they must ask, ‘What policy measures are we considering that would actually make this problem far worse?’

New South Wales Premier Mike Baird has one such policy under consideration today – relaxing restrictions on bottle shop closing times – a move that will in all likelihood increase the number of family violence incidents. The Hon Ian Callinan AC said as much in his recent report on Sydney’s liquor laws.

The former High Court judge has made an important contribution to this issue. While his comments were brief and his conclusions quixotic, he was likely the first independent observer of government trading hour policies to say what many experts have been arguing for many years: increased availability of alcohol increases the risk of family violence.

A Baird Government decision to ease restrictions in the bush, where domestic violence rates are nearly 50 per cent higher than in the city, would fly in the face of evidence showing earlier bottle shop closing times reduces the level of harm.

What would it say to other First Ministers?

Research has found that for every 10,000 additional litres of pure alcohol sold by bottle shops, the risk of violence experienced in a residential setting is increased by 26 per cent.

Further research has shown that a ten per cent increase in off-licence liquor outlets is associated with a 3.3 per cent increase in family violence.

It’s a simple but devastating equation. The more takeaway alcohol sold, the greater the risk of harm.

If the Premier backs down on bottle shop closing times he turns his back on the women and children of New South Wales, exposing them to certain greater risk of family violence and walking away from a commitment to make domestic violence a government priority.

Last year, in New South Wales alone there were 8,949 incidents of domestic violence identified as being alcohol-related.

Data from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows that 30.6 per cent of all domestic violence incidents in the year 2015-16 involved alcohol.

In the face of such unacceptable numbers, we can and must be doing all we can to reduce those harms. And if we are serious, both in New South Wales and every other Australian jurisdiction, then prevention must be our ultimate goal.

At COAG later this week, Prime Minister Turnbull and Premier Baird have the opportunity to show how to make a difference and prevent some of the tragic toll of family violence by insisting upon strong action on alcohol.