If you’re not familiar with the devastating impacts and overall unpopularity of NSW’s lockout laws, you probably need to read more. Suffice it to say they’re devastating and unpopular and will soon be introduced in Brisbane.

Other states either already have some form of lockout in place or are considering taking on their own form of the controversial laws. Victoria is the only state without them, having briefly toyed with the idea some years back.

But despite all the criticism, there’s now calls for the laws to be adopted nationwide and implemented by the federal government alongside an adoption of higher alcohol taxes and a ban on alcohol sponsorship in sport.

As ABC News reports, St Vincent’s Health Australia is urging the government and the major political parties to take heed of their new proposal as part of a bid to reduce alcohol-related harm by 20 percent by 2025.

“You’ve got 157,000 people every year going into hospital, you’ve got around 60 per cent of crime in Australia related to alcohol, [and] nearly a billion dollars spent on putting people into hospital because of alcohol,” CEO Toby Hall told ABC.

“The policies we’re talking about will have a significant benefit for the wider community, particularly in reducing some of the crimes that we see around us which are really disturbing society at the moment.”

St Vincent’s recommendations centre around a floor price on alcohol and a new tax system based on the volume of alcohol in a drink. For example, under such laws, normally cheap, high-alcohol wine would become more expensive.

“You can go to any bottle store in Australia and you can buy a bottle of wine at 11 per cent proof for around $2.50 now, and that is meaning there is very easy access to quite high-volume alcohol,” Mr Hall said.

Whilst there is sound reasoning in such a tax, particularly when much of the world bases its alcohol tax on volumes and it’s been shown to reduce alcohol consumption, the suggestion of introducing Sydney-style lockouts nationwide is perturbing.

St Vincent’s would like the federal government to pressure states and territories into introducing lockout laws that would see bottle shops closing at 10pm and bars and clubs not serving alcohol after 3am.

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“The evidence has shown where bottle stores close earlier and clubs close earlier there’s less domestic violence, there’s less violent assault,” Mr Hall said, though such evidence, particularly in Sydney, has been disputed.

“This is not about being wowsers, this is not about a nanny state, it’s saying ‘let’s learn to have fun, enjoy ourselves, go out to nightclubs, go out to sport, but let’s not associate alcohol with that’,” Mr Hall said.

According to St Vincent’s, their suggestions would result in 30,000 fewer hospital admissions per year and prevent three alcohol-related deaths per day. But even those who agree Australia’s alcohol problem must be addressed don’t agree with the lockout laws.

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