West Australian convenience stores make submission to sell alcohol

Kara Vickery
June 22, 2013
PerthNow

CORNER stores want to sell liquor to make up for money lost because of plain cigarette packaging.
In a submission to a review of the state’s alcohol laws, the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores admitted there was a “significant emotional hurdle” to overcome, but allowing stores to sell booze was an “obvious and necessary” reform to modernise WA retail.

The submission is just one of 84 before a committee reviewing the WA Liquor Control Act.

Other submissions include:

– A push by the Drug and Alcohol Office to ban alcohol advertising within 400m of schools.

– A paper by the Australian Association of National Advertisers that claims there is no link between alcohol advertising and problem drinking.

– A call from the City of Cockburn for the legal drinking age to be raised to 21, unless alcohol abuse by young people declines by 2018.

– A demand from Tourism WA and the Tourism Council to be granted equal say with police on liquor licence approvals.

Submissions calling for pubs and clubs to be allowed to open until midnight on Sunday.

The review has prompted Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan to campaign for tougher alcohol advertising restrictions, including a ban during live sport.

And parent groups have demanded WA introduce secondary supply laws to penalise adults who supply alcohol to children in their homes. The committee is expected to report to the Barnett Government within months with recommended changes to the Act.

AACS executive director Jeff Rogut said the stranglehold Coles and Woolworths had on the alcohol market stifled convenience stores.

“Nowhere else in the Western world do two companies have such a disproportionate hold on consumers’ dollars,” he said in its submission. “The supermarket duopoly has successfully used the existing regulatory framework to dominate alcohol sales to a level that has become unsustainable.”

Mr Rogut said it was time for a “fair, level-headed discussion” on letting corner stores sell alcohol.

“Together with the difficult trading conditions faced by the retail sector, the introduction of the carbon tax, tobacco plain packaging, the rumoured introduction of a ‘fat tax’ and already high utility and labour costs, many small businesses in this sector face an uncertain future,” he said. “Reviewing legislation to permit convenience stores in WA to sell packaged alcohol is one way to generate new revenue opportunities.”

However, McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth director Mike Daube said selling packaged liquor in convenience stores was the last thing WA needed.

“The prospect of selling alcohol in convenience stores would have every parent shuddering,” he said. “We know that a lot of retailers are willing to sell cigarettes to children underage just imagine how that would work with alcohol.”