Alcohol Abuse Research Condemned by the Alcohol Industry Hired Expert
The Alcohol Industry is up in arms about research by The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education(FARE) which revealed that alcohol is more affordable today than it was 3 decades ago. This prompted FARE to put forward a recommendation to impose heavier taxes on alcohol which alcohol producers are not happy about. The Alcohol industry has now funded further research to provide proof that will dispute the claims of FARE.
According to FARE, the fact that the cheapest wine is now cheaper than bottled water is unacceptable however the New Zealand expert brought in by the alcohol industry claims that the data relied on by FARE was inaccurate. Dr Eric Crampton, an economics lecturer at Canterbury University believes that the statistics publicised have been vastly exaggerated and only one fifth of the social costs of alcohol abuse statistics are correct.
This post published on www.smh.com.au has the full story:
IN THE face of calls for measures to counter grog abuse, the alcohol industry is financing an academic critique of “nanny state” measures, importing a New Zealand economist who challenges a $15 billion estimate of the annual cost of alcohol abuse in Australia.
The move comes as an alcohol research group today releases research showing that alcohol is far more affordable today than it was 30 years ago, to back its calls for heavier taxes on cheap alcohol.
The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), commissioned the Australia Institute study which found that incomes have risen at three times the rate of alcohol prices in the past 30 years and that the cheapest wine now cost less than bottled water.
The NZ economist, Eric Crampton, yesterday told an alcohol industry-sponsored briefing in Canberra that a widely-cited Australian study had relied on incorrect economic arguments to support “paternalistic” policy to combat excessive drinking.
Dr Crampton, a senior lecturer in economics at Canterbury University, has had a paper published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, stating that only a fifth of the social costs of alcohol abuse asserted by the Australian study could be “plausibly counted”.
He said many of the costs totalling $15 billion in that study – covering elements such as household, healthcare, productivity and traffic accidents costs – were inadmissable in a standard economic framework.
“My worry has been that while the $15 billion is economically meaningless, it is policy meaningful. If people expect this is a cost to … their back pocket because of other people’s behaviour, that increases the demand for certain types of policy,” Dr Crampton told a lunch for journalists hosted by the National Alcohol Beverage Industry Council.
Questioned about his independence given his research and visit was financed by the alcohol industry, Dr Cramptonsaid he was subject to his university’s strict controls to ensure academic freedom.
“I expect that if the paper had provided alternative conclusions they would not have invited me to this.”
The chief executive of FARE, Michael Thorn, said the study Dr Crampton questioned, by Australian academics David Collins and Helen Lapsley, was performed in accordance with the approach laid down by the World Health Organization.
FARE has also called for the abolishment of the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) in order to increase the minimum price of alcohol. This after studies showed that the price of cask wine was contributing to over drinking and Aussies exceeding the healthy drinking limit. If approved the plan would see the price of cask wine tripled and government receiving an extra $1.5 billion annually.
I found this post on News.com that provided more information:
Cask wine is currently taxed at 8 per standard drink but full strength beer is slugged with a tax rate of 42 and spirits 92. In a submission to a government inquiry into whether a minimum price should be placed on alcohol the Foundation of Alcohol Research and Education says ending the discount taxation of wine should be a higher priority.
“The best and most immediate way to increase the floor price of alcohol is to abolish the wine equalisation tax (WET),” FARE chief executive Michael Thorn said.