Health Coalition Aotearoa is deeply frustrated by Prime
Minister Chris Hipkins’ decision to delay work on
regulating alcohol advertising until next
year.
Experts in the field have been pushing for years
for measures to control the virtually unrestricted marketing
allowed for alcohol companies.
HCA Co-Chair Professor
Boyd Swinburn says alcohol advertising contributes hugely to
its normalisation and why alcohol harm is so
widespread.
“This is an easily achievable,
evidence-based policy to put the health and wellbeing of
people in Aotearoa New Zealand ahead of harmful
corporations.
Professor Swinburn says the Prime
Minister’s justification for the move was indefensible and
untrue.
“Prime Minister Hipkins said the regulations
would raise the cost of community participation in sport.
But we’ve done the very same thing with removing tobacco
advertising from sport in the past and it’s completely
viable.
“We could easily make the cost up through an
alcohol sale levy, and this would be just a drop in the
ocean of total alcohol sales. This is a weak excuse not a
policy
barrier.”
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