25th February, 2015
The NSW Council of Churches has backed calls for a broad, public-health approach to tackling the problem of alcohol abuse in Australia following the release of a report yesterday which shows that more than a million children are affected in some way and 140,000 "substantially affected" by the alcohol consumption of their parents or carers.
Released by Australian of the Year Rosie Batty at Parliament House in Sydney, the report, Hidden Harm: Alcohol’s Impact on Children and Families, also found that 10,000 children are in the child protection system because of a carer’s drinking.
The churches’ council – which has long called for for harm-minimisation measures to reduce alcohol-related violence – has thrown its support behind calls from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, which funded the report, for national public education campaigns which acknowledge the role of alcohol in family violence and introduce the targeted screening of young people at greater risk of harm as well as policies to reduce the availability of alcohol as well as target its price and promotion.
Speaking at the launch of the report, FARE’s chief executive Michael Thorn said that alcohol-related family and domestic violence "occurs all too frequently in Australia". "This research makes very clear that because of the scale of the problem and the large numbers of children and families affected, governments must embrace a broad public health approach with a strong focus on prevention."
The study, which was conducted by the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, found that there were at least 29, 684 police-reported incidents of alcohol-related domestic violence in Australia in 2011.
– DAVID ADAMS
