{"id":61405,"date":"2025-08-12T02:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T02:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61405\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T02:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T02:09:10","slug":"calls-for-liquorland-bws-to-commit-to-alice-springs-liquor-accord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61405\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for Liquorland, BWS to commit to Alice Springs Liquor Accord"},"content":{"rendered":"

An alcohol harm prevention group is calling on the two mainstream liquor outlets to stop selling cheap alcohol in Alice Springs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People’s Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC) spokesperson John Boffa said it was disappointing that Coles-owned Liquorland and the Endeavour Group’s BWS \u00a0have not committed to the Alice Springs Liquor Accord<\/a>‘s “harm minimisation accord initiative”, which would see a commitment to a minimum alcohol price.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Boffa is disappointed with Liquorland and BWS’s decision to sell cheap alcohol in Alice Springs. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

He said both outlets should be “ashamed of their decision”.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Northern Territory government repealed legislation requiring alcohol outlets in Alice Springs from selling alcohol below $1.30 per standard drink.<\/p>\n

The 2018 legalisation<\/a> was intended as an alcohol harm reduction strategy in the Central Australian community.<\/p>\n

Despite the Northern Territory government’s decision to scrap the law, several Alice Springs businesses committed to voluntarily maintaining the minimum alcohol price.<\/p>\n

Dr Boffa says it is now possible to buy $8 bottles of wine, which equates to $1 per standard drink.<\/p>\n

\"Bottles<\/p>\n

Bottles of wine on a shelf in a bottle shop. (ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough)<\/p>\n

“We’ll end up seeing more pure alcohol being bought and consumed for the money that’s available to spend on alcohol,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Central Australia has a differential problem with alcohol. A much greater problem than the Top End therefore we still need a differential response.”<\/p>\n

Dr Boffa said it was vital for all outlets to voluntarily commit to the $1.30 minimum alcohol price.<\/p>\n

“We need every possible strategy in place here to reduce the harm from alcohol,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police walk along a street at night in Alice Springs. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

“We just need to not go back to a race to the bottom where we start seeing alcohol being sold cheaper than water.”<\/p>\n

Dr Boffa said the voluntary harm minimisation accord initiative would face “enormous pressure” if BWS and Liquorland did not sign on.<\/p>\n

“They’re dragging their feet at a time when this town cannot afford to have any preventable alcohol-related harm,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have so much harm as it is, and we need to do all we can.”<\/p>\n

Self-imposed restrictions\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lhere Artepe Enterprises is managed by a board of Arrernte traditional owners and runs the three liquor outlets attached to IGA supermarkets across Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

Operations manager Arun Sharma said there was no benefit to the Alice Springs community from selling cheap alcohol.<\/p>\n

Mr Sharma questioned the agenda of the major liquor chains selling cheap alcohol.<\/p>\n

\"Arun<\/p>\n

Arun Sharma says the board believes in the minimum floor price. (ABC news: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

“We’re still following the minimum floor price technically, although government has revoked that [law],” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are a local organisation and we are owned by traditional owners of Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

“We believe that we owe to this community.”<\/p>\n

He said the board believed the minimum floor price deterred people from spending too much money on particular liquor products and minimised “anti-social behaviour and liquor-related harm”.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The Lhere Artepe-owned supermarket in Eastside, Alice Springs. (ABC Alice Springs: Emma Haskin)<\/p>\n

BWS commits to responsible service<\/p>\n

The Endeavour Group said sales figures were down compared to 12 months ago, when the minimum alcohol price was in legislation.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson said that “our price setting in the NT will continue to reflect our values and our commitment to responsible service and the well-being of the community”.<\/p>\n

“BWS in Alice Springs has voluntarily imposed volume restrictions since 2020,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“In a single transaction, a customer cannot purchase more than a single bottle of spirits, six bottles of wine, or three cartons of beer.<\/p>\n

“The store does not trade on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and is only open from 3pm until 7pm Wednesday to Friday and 11am until 7pm on Saturday.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, a Coles Liquor spokesperson said the outlet had implemented a new alcohol minimum price ” that seeks to balance the MUP’s (minimum unit price) removal, whilst upholding our commitment to the responsible service and consumption of alcohol”.<\/p>\n

“Coles Liquor stores operate on a Territory-wide pricing model, so this new pricing structure has been implemented in all of our NT stores.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the Alice Springs’ Liquorland store had several voluntary measures, including “purchase limits on the quantity of alcohol sold, a limit of one transaction per person per day and no retailing of cask wine”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alcohol harm prevention group is calling on the two mainstream liquor outlets to stop selling cheap alcohol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49565,49564,64,63,99,49567,104,49570,49569,49566,49568],"class_list":["post-61405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alcohol-floor-price","tag-alice-springs-liquor-accord","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-bws","tag-coles","tag-endeavour-group","tag-john-boffa","tag-liquorland","tag-peoples-alcohol-action-coalition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}