A digital campaign to share in the vision of a country with less alcohol harm

A digital campaign to share in the vision of a country with less alcohol harm

Uncap Our Potential is a digital campaign that is underpinned by a values and strengths-based approached. It invites New Zealanders to truly imagine the amazing potential we can reach and share, when our nation has less alcohol harm.

The campaign kicks off with two digital stories on social media, with New Zealanders working at the forefront of alcohol harm sharing their vision of a future with less harm. These can be found on the campaign website (click the logo below for visiting the website). Both videos have Te Reo Māori and English subtitles.  

Everything we care about will start to improve. With less alcohol harm, we can improve our mental wellbeing, reduce suicide, have safer roads and communities, less family harm, and improve our physical health (e.g. fewer injuries and cancers). 

We can open up space to enable genuine connection, conversations, trust and creativity. We can identify evidence-based pathways to this vision, such as supporting effective alcohol pricing policies.

Pro-equity policies must be prioritised to uphold our obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, ending the longstanding inequities in alcohol-related harm between Māori and non-Māori.

We sincerely hope that you also share the vision to uncap our potential. In the words of one New Zealander in our videos, "together we can make it a reality". Please support by sharing the digital resources on the campaign website. Please also like and share on any of our social media platforms:

UncapNZ

uncapourpotential

@UncapNZ

Uncap Our Potential

We are calling on you to protect our communities from alcohol advertising:

Reducing community exposure to alcohol advertising through the Auckland Signage Bylaw

Red Shoes Rock! is about every New Zealander stepping out in red shoes to build awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) during September. RJ Formanek, an adult living with FASD, sparked Red Shoes Rock! some years ago when he decided to wear red shoes to stand out from the crowd, get people talking, and make FASD visible - now it's gone global!

Join us during FASD awareness month and help continue the conversation.

Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft shares FASD Awareness Day message on Facebook

Alcohol Healthwatch spreads global message to prevent harm from drinking during pregnancy this FASD Awareness Day

Alcohol Healthwatch has released a FASD day 2021 message to the media. You can read it here. 

New Alcohol Healthwatch FASD Factsheet

Download our August 2021 factsheet here.

Don't know? Don't drink digital toolkit

Te Hiringa Hauora (Health Promotion Agency) has developed a digital toolkit of resources that can be used to support your promotional activities for FASD awareness month. You can view the toolkit here.

Pregnancy warning success at last!

On the 17th July 2020, Australian and New Zealand Ministers voted for mandatory pregnancy health warning labels giving alcohol producers three years to include the warning label on their products and packaging. Alcohol Healthwatch says that to their knowledge this is the only pregnancy health warning label in the world that includes both a pictogram and specific text, with the warning heading also required to be in red to attract to attention. This label will add to the other actions that are in place to support healthy pregnancies and is another important step to building strong and consistent messaging about alcohol-free pregnancies being the safest option. (Below is an example of the mandated label) 

The '20 year gestation of a pregnancy health warning for alcohol' written by Dr Nicki Jackson, Executive Director, Alcohol Healthwatch, and recently published in the New Zealand Medical Journal Digest, documents the journey to achieving this historic warning label decision.

The COVID-19 situation poses extra challenges for most of us, but especially whānau who are under additional financial stress, and people who are affected by harmful alcohol use, whether it is their own or someone else's alcohol use. People may tend to drink more in an occasion, and more frequently, when they feel stressed. Alcohol is known to negatively affect mental health and wellbeing, and plays a key role in violence and family harm. For some people, staying home plus drinking may put them at extra risk.

Alcohol is also the cause of many injuries and chronic illnesses. These injuries and illnesses put extra strain on hospital and health resources. During the COVID-19 response, we need to do everything we can to reduce the alcohol-related burden on our health system. 

Kiwis are strong, resilient and kind to others. Below is a list of services you can use if you have any concerns about alcohol:

Alcohol and Drug services

• Alcohol and Drug Helpline (0800 787 797 or text 8681)
  • Māori Line 0800 787 798 or text 8681
  • Pasifika Line 0800 787 799 or text 8681
  • Youth Line 0800 787 984 or text 8681
• Kaupapa Māori treatment providers
• Alcohol and drug support operated by the Salvation Army (0800 53 00 00)

Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā (National Māori Pandemic Group)

• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TRWU20/

Lifeline and other mental health helplines

• Lifeline (0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357, 0800 828 865 for suicide crisis)
• NZ mental health & addictions helpline: free text or call 1737
• Thelowdown.org.nz
• Depression.org.nz
• Protecting vulnerable children

Family Violence

• Women’s Refuge Crisisline: 0800 REFUGE or 0800 733 843
• Shine Family Violence Helpline: 0508 744 633

Advice on living sober or low-risk drinking

• Living sober
• Tips for easing up on the booze in a time of lockdown
• Low-risk drinking advice
• New Zealand Drug Foundation – useful advice to manage withdrawal, maintain recovery, etc

Healthline for health advice on COVID-19

• Healthline (0800 358 5453) – if you have any health concerns about COVID-19

If there is an immediate threat to your safety or the safety of others, please call emergency services on 111.

Please visit https://covid19.govt.nz/ for the most credible and updated health information on COVID-19.

Consumption of alcohol will not protect you from COVID-19! Check out and share the resources developed by the World Health Organization Europe on what you need to know about alcohol at this time. 

The above list is not exhaustive, and there is a whole range of organisations not listed here. Please also visit other sections of ActionPoint.org.nz for all kinds of information on alcohol issues and actions you can take to reduce alcohol harm in your community.

Every decision-maker plays a key role in reducing alcohol-related harm and enabling a healthier, fairer Aotearoa New Zealand. By implementing evidence-based policies, we have the potential to improve everything we deeply care about. 

With less alcohol harm, we can; improve our mental wellbeing, reduce suicide and family harm, have safer roads and communities, improve our physical health (e.g. fewer injuries, birth defects and cancers) and lift employment and productivity. Every New Zealander stands to benefit as a result of improved safety and substantial cost savings. Our core services and sectors, such as ACC, police, health, welfare and justice will experience significant gains from reduced harm. The possibilities and benefits are endless.

Independent public opinion polling shows strong support among New Zealanders for more action to be taken on alcohol harm.

The evidence-based, pro-equity policies listed below will make the biggest difference to shifting our drinking culture and reducing harm in our country, especially to those who are disproportionately affected. This includes women and children, as they suffer the greatest harm from the drinking of others. Pro-equity polices are also needed to uphold our obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, ending the longstanding inequities in alcohol-related harm between Māori and non-Māori.

Evidence-based policies

	Reduce the hours that alcohol can be sold Reform the local alcohol policy process (currently dominated by alcohol industry appeals) Limit the number of places that sell alcohol Raise the alcohol purchase age to 20 years
	Increase alcohol prices, on average, by at least 10% through raising alcohol excise taxes Implement minimum unit pricing for alcohol (MUP) Stop under-taxing wine; tax wine by alcohol content and not beverage volume Restrict the use of price promotions and discounts Require the industry to report sales data
	Implement comprehensive statutory restrictions to alcohol marketing and sponsorship (a) Fund the replacement of alcohol sponsorship of community and professional sports (b) Restrict alcohol marketing on social/digital media platforms (c) Restrict alcohol advertising near schools and ECE centres (d) Develop an independent system of alcohol marketing surveillance (e) Require Government health (e.g. cancer) warning labels on alcohol products
	Increase funding for screening and brief interventions for hazardous drinking Increase funding for the diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Increase support for individuals and families affected by FASD
	Increase funding for compulsory roadside breath testing Increase effective interventions for repeat drink-drive offenders Further reduce the legal drink drive limit for adults
	Mandate a register of lobbying of designated public officials Provide robust protection for alcohol control measures from alcohol industry interference

Rationale

Availability

• New Zealand’s legislative default trading hours for off-licences (7am to 11pm) and on-licences (8am to 4am) are too long, increasing the serious risk of alcohol harm in communities
• Alcohol outlet density is highest in socio-economically deprived communities
• Community efforts to address alcohol outlet saturation in their neighbourhoods have been unsuccessful
• Councils trying to uphold community wishes for greater alcohol control have faced lengthy and costly legal challenges to their local alcohol policies, largely by the alcohol industry interests (e.g. supermarkets and bottle stores)
• Young people experience disproportionately more harm from their drinking and can be protected by increasing the legal purchase age

Affordability

• A strong body of research shows that increasing the price of alcohol is the most effective and cost-effective measure to reduce alcohol use and harm
• New Zealand research in 2017 found that alcohol was more affordable than ever before
• 50% increases in alcohol excise tax will increase alcohol prices, on average, by 10% and reduce overall consumption by 5%
• The cheapest alcohol in New Zealand is sold for as little as 68 cents per standard drink
• Wine is taxed at a flat rate that assumes all wine is 10% alcohol strength – this is well below the current alcohol content of wines and represents significant lost tax revenue. The low rate effectively means that the 5th glass in a bottle is effectively tax-free.
• Heavy drinkers are more likely to buy cheap alcohol
• Many countries and jurisdictions have recently implemented MUP, showing positive effects
  Low income, heavy drinkers accrue the vast majority of health benefits from Minimum Unit Pricing

Advertising

• Among young people, exposure to alcohol marketing has been shown to increase the likelihood of starting to drink and drinking heavily
• Persons with alcohol dependence (and those in recovery) are particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol marketing
• Tamariki Māori are disproportionately exposed to alcohol marketing, particularly via alcohol sports sponsorship and shop fronts of licensed premises
• Industry self-regulation of alcohol advertising (through a voluntary code of practice) is ineffective
• Sophisticated and unique targeting of alcohol marketing via digital media platforms is increasing markedly, proving difficult to identify and monitor for compliance and enforcement purposes
• Other countries are implementing comprehensive restrictions to marketing or adopting measures that specifically protect children (e.g. by requiring no alcohol advertising around schools)
• Individuals and communities have a right to know the health impacts of alcohol whether it is cancer, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, poor mental health, family harm, etc

Health Services

• Alcohol screening and brief interventions in health care settings are cost-effective
• FASD is a lifelong disability that is largely unaddressed, leaving affected individuals and whānau struggling without appropriate cross-sectoral intervention and support

Drink driving

• The number of random breath tests per year continues to fall below best practice levels
• Alcohol is involved in around one-third of all road deaths in New Zealand
• Between 2014 and 2016, for every 100 alcohol or drug-impaired drivers or riders who died in road crashes, 37 of their passengers and 19 sober road users died with them
• In some parts of New Zealand, the rate of alcohol-involved deaths and serious injuries has been increasing
• Many countries now have a blood alcohol content (BAC) limit of 0.02% for adult drivers

Alcohol industry influence

• New Zealand has measures in place to protect tobacco policies, but not alcohol policies, from commercial interests
• In relation to New Zealand’s heavy drinking culture, the Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry report noted that “Strong vested interest groups have incentives to resist change.”
• Transparency is essential to an effective democracy
• International experience shows the benefits of a lobby register when developing and implementing strong alcohol control measures

Download the pdf of the scorecard below or here.

NOTE: 

Unfortunately, only a few parties have released their policies so far. Details are available at

https://policy.nz/topic/health#Alcohol%20and%20drugs or

https://www.interest.co.nz/news/105627/election-2020-party-policies-drugs-alcohol

You can use our scorecard to see how they measure up. When more parties have listed their policies we hope to provide an update!