The Australian Bureau of Statistics might cease to report national alcohol consumption estimates derived from sales data and the latest issue of the 'Medical Journal of Australia' contains an editorial about why we should be concerned. Titled, 'Alcohol sales data are essential for good public policies towards alcohol', the article spells out the implications are for policymakers, community action groups and public health researchers, saying that good data on alcohol use and alcohol-related harm in the Australian population is "essential" for informing debates about alcohol policy, especially concerning Australia's youth:
"The recent change of federal government has brought a renewed policy interest in alcohol use. The alcohol industry claims that this interest is misplaced, citing data which suggest that per capita alcohol use and frequency of consumption, as indicated by household surveys, have been relatively stable for over a decade. However, there are doubts about the quality of these alcohol trend data, and the most recent survey data certainly indicate there is cause for concern. In 2007, one in five Australians over the age of 14, including nearly half (44%) of young men and around a third of young women aged 20-29 years, reported drinking in risky ways monthly or more often. The alcohol industry derives substantial profits from risky drinking, with -- on conservative estimates -- two-thirds of all alcohol, and 80% of alcohol used by young people aged 14-24 years, consumed in ways that put the drinker's (and others') health at risk."
"Australia is now in danger of failing to collect alcohol sales data at a time when community concern about alcohol is increasing and the quality of survey data may be declining".
If Australia stops collecting alcohol sales data, the country would be "the only OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) country to not collect national alcohol consumption data". Such data provides "essential information to monitor trends in per capita alcohol use, which is strongly related to adverse health outcomes such as liver cirrhosis, motor vehicle crashes, and suicide".
In addition, the World Health Organization has recommended that "public health monitoring of alcohol use should include credible estimates of per capita alcohol consumption derived from alcohol sales data, in addition to well conducted population surveys of drinking patterns".
The extracts above are from an editorial in the 'Medical Journal of Australia', titled, 'Alcohol sales data are essential for good public policies towards alcohol', 2008, by Wayne D Hall, Tanya N Chikritzhs, Peter H N d'Abbs and Robin G W Room, 'eMJA', v.189, n.4, pp.188-189. The editorial is accessible on the 'eMJA' website, once you complete the step of registering as a reader (free), at:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/189_04_180808/hal10593_fm.html

The Community Alcohol Action Network or CAAN website carries a media release (28 July 2008) which cites the Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) as having taken aim at the liquor lobby for "misleading the public about the Federal Government's tax increase on ready-to-drink beverages (RTDs)". The ADF says the figures released by the Liquor Merchants of Australia are inconclusive. ADF spokesperson Geoff Munro says we should be careful about how the alcohol industry is interpreting the figures: "The industry is being misleading. Increasing taxes is a proven and effective method of decreasing sales of alcohol to young people. There is no proof that subsequent spirit sales are to underage drinkers, rather than adults who also purchased RTDs." Geoff Munro believes that this tax "will work on young people. If the decrease in RTD consumption has resulted from the decrease in availability to this group, then the tax must be praised as a success. What's more, by preventing future drinkers from being introduced to alcohol so early in life, this tax will prove most worthwhile," and he continues: "The liquor industry's claims that young people have simply switched to bottled spirits is unproven, especially when the evidence is considered ... Their statistics showing alcopops have declined by 30% while spirits sales have increased by 46% doesn't tell us anything about young people's drinking. As many RTD drinkers are adults they may now be buying bottled spirits. The real effect of any tax increase won't be known for at least 12 months". (Source: Media release, 'Why the alcopop tax is working', 28 July 2008, viewed 19 August 2008,
http://www.caan.adf.org.au/changingculture/whyalcopop.html)
Note: CAAN and the GrogWatch team would like to know what you think of GrogWatch, and invite you to complete their short survey at: http://www.caan.adf.org.au

The September issue of the ACYS quarterly journal 'Youth Studies Australia' contains a mix of articles plus a sneak preview from our forthcoming three-volume series, 'Doing youth work in Australia', which will feature the 'best of' 'Youth Studies Australia' articles for the past 20 plus years.
Richard Eckersley's 1995 paper 'Values and visions: Youth and the failure of modern Western culture' is featured in this issue of 'Youth Studies Australia' to demonstrate not only the calibre of papers that will be reproduced in our 'Doing youth work in Australia' series, but also the continued relevance of these 'classic' papers from the journal. The 'Doing youth work in Australia' series is compiled by Rob White, Professor of Environmental Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Tasmania. More on its availability in a later edition of this newsletter.
The other papers in the September 2008 issue of 'Youth Studies Australia' are:
* Online network use in schools: Social and educational opportunities by Tanya Notley
* The real cost of linking homeless young people to employment, education and training, by Robyn Broadbent
* Meeting the needs of marginalised young men: An analysis of service provision by Mindy Sotiri
* "This is not a rave!": Changes in the commercialised Melbourne rave/dance party scene by Christine Siokou and David Moore.

The Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, publisher of the peer-reviewed journal 'Youth Studies Australia' and of this newsletter, is currently having a winter book sale, with many of its titles on youth issues significantly reduced in price (e.g. 'Youth subcultures' at $15 plus $7 in postage) This offer lasts for just another few days and ends on 31 August 2008 or while stocks last. For orders, or for a list of ACYS books, see http://www.acys.info/publications/books  or phone Sue Dilley at ACYS, University of Tasmania, (03) 6226 2591.

The Australian Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne also has a special offer at this time, with some of its regular reports (Research Reports (RR) and Working Papers (WP) series free to those who will collect them from the centre itself at level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, Carlton, Victoria, or
phone Rhonda Christopher at the AYRC, University of Melbourne, (03) 8344 9634.

Those involved in research with young people will be interested to know that the Australian Sociological Association (TASA) conference for 2008, 'Re-Imagining Sociology' will be held on 2-5 December in Melbourne. There will be a youth research stream at this conference, offering an opportunity for youth researchers to share what is new and to hear about each other's work. Abstracts are due on Monday 29 September, and should be submitted online at:
http://callforpapers.com.au/tasa2008/createaccount.php See the conference web page for more details:
http://www.tasa.org.au/conference/ Earlybird registration closes on Monday 13 October 2008. Enquiries: Ani Wierenga and Johanna Wyn, University of Melbourne, email: wierenga[at]unimelb.edu.au

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) are currently developing a dedicated website for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth. It will be released in early September. For details contact: Adriana Turner
Project Administrator, LSAY Branch, National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), PO Box 8288 Station Arcade SA 5000, ph: (08) 8230 8686; fax: (08) 8212 3436; http://www.ncver.edu.au

The deadline for abstracts for this conference is 31 August 2008. The Finnish Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration and the Finnish Youth Research Society are organising this international interdisciplinary conference, and invite researchers from different disciplines to submit papers to this conference on questions of age, life course, identity and migration. "Our main objective is to discuss social and psychological processes, and forms of culture in generational encounters related to migration and new patterns of transmission of 'the old to the new'. There is a growing, and interdisciplinary, interest in migration, integration, multiculturalism and transnationalism. However, relatively little attention has been paid to age, family and intergenerational aspects, although these issues are implicitly present in many migration and integration studies ... By highlighting phenomena such as social memory, individual agency, multiple memberships, acculturation, and personal experiences of past, present and future, we could gain deeper knowledge on what is shared, contested or even denied within and between families, youth cultures and ethnic or cultural communities." More information about the conference, including fees and registration, as well as about the submission of abstracts and session themes are available at http://www.nuorisotutkimusseura.fi (Source: Email, from Carsten Yndigegn to the email discussion list, ESA-YOUTH, 11 August 2008, and the Finnish Youth Research Society website, viewed 19 August 2008, http://www.nuorisotutkimusseura.fi/sivu.php?artikkeli_id=685)