Melbourne Nightlife Blog

11 March, 2008

Sporting venues told to sober up

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has assigned $53,500,000 to try and combat binge drinking, in particular binge drinking amongst young Australians.

Recent studies found more than 30% of youths aged 13 to 17 had participated in unsupervised drinking at a sports club — and almost three-quarters had never been asked for proof of age. Further, one in 14 sporting club members — and one in eight aged 18 to 20 — drank more than 13 standard drinks every time they went to the club. This is more than double the government's health guidelines on binge drinking for adult men (six standard drinks in one single session).

Where's the money going?
$14.4 million will be assigned to sporting clubs to develop codes of conduct on binge drinking among members.
$19.1 million will be on education and early intervention programs for teenagers, and
$20 million will be on a shock advertising campaign encompassing television, radio and the Internet aimed at highlighting the consequences of binge drinking to young people.

Sources: The Age & Herald Sun

No comments: