A Legislative Assembly inquiry that heard from Uber Eats, DoorDash, frontline services and industry bodies has today handed down its recommendations on a proposed liquor law change in the ACT.
Greens Leader and spokesperson on health Shane Rattenbury MLA was a member of the inquiry committee and says stories from victim survivors of alcohol-related violence were particularly powerful.
"Convenience shouldn't come at a cost to people's health and safety," Mr Rattenbury said.
"One of the key recommendations of the committee was that protecting people from alcohol-related harm should be the most important aim of the ACT's liquor legislation."
The committee has made further recommendations, including:
- Same-day delivery of alcohol should be limited to between 10am and 10pm (based on evidence from NSW that when deliveries were extended from 10pm to 11pm, there was a statistical increase in rates of family, domestic and sexual violence reported to police)
- There should be a two-hour pause between online order and delivery of alcohol
- Same-day delivery providers should allow customers to opt out of marketing and advertising of alcohol.
"During the inquiry we heard that alcohol is estimated to be involved in 23 to 65 percent of all family violence reported to police," Mr Rattenbury said.
"Advocacy body FARE cited evidence that there was one person dying every 90 minutes and one person being hospitalised every three minutes because of alcohol.
"Since alcohol is such a key contributor to domestic and family violence, adopting these evidence-based recommendations around same-day delivery of alcohol will be an important way of reducing these harms for people in the ACT."
