Bendigo bottle shop owners and licensees must help protect improving trends in teenage drinking by maintaining strict controls on alcohol sales without appropriate proof-of-age identification.

Bendigo Community Health Services is working with schools through a Smart Generation Program to educate students and parents on the dangers of alcohol.

BCHS Smart Generation co-ordinator Anne-Marie Kelly said studies in 2014 and 2016 had shown welcome improvement in the attitudes of young people to alcohol.

“A 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found 80 per cent of 12 to 17 year olds had abstained from alcohol. This compares very favourably to an Australian government survey in 2014 that found 68 per cent of 12 to 17 year olds were obtaining alcohol from home, friends or buying themselves from a bottle shop,” Ms Kelly said.

Ms Kelly said monitoring bottle shop sales was a key component of the Smart Generation Program and with a 2018 audit planned the organisation wanted to see better results than 2017 which showed some outlets weren’t doing enough to ensure improving teenage drinking trends continued.

“We had two 18-year-olds of underage appearance visit 28 Bendigo outlets on two separate occasions to try and buy alcohol without proof-of-age identification,” she said.

“The audit found 67 per cent of outlets sold alcohol without the presentation of identification.

“We even had one bottle shop do the right thing by asking for proof-of-age ID but when it wasn’t provided, sold the alcohol anyway.”

Ms Kelly said all bottle shops visited were sent a letter with the results and a reminder of legislation preventing the sale of alcohol to people under the age of 18 before the audit process was repeated to identify any change in behaviour.

“It was disappointing that when we did a second audit the overall percentage of people asking for proof-of-age ID before selling alcohol did not change,” Ms Kelly said.

“We have seen improvement in the attitudes of young people and parents and their behaviour towards alcohol, so it’s time bottle shop owners did the same.

“Many outlets have a policy to ask for proof-of-age ID if someone looks under 25. This type of policy is considered best-practice and has the endorsement of government and industry groups so we would definitely encourage this method.

“It’s important bottle shop owners and licensees deliver a strong message to their staff that selling alcohol to teenagers is not only illegal, it puts the health of those teenagers at serious risk.

“It would be great to be one day be able to report that no bottle shops served alcohol to people who looked under 25 without the correct ID.”

Ms Kelly said there was evidence in Australia that parents had changed the way they manage alcohol for their children.

“They’re less likely to provide alcohol to their kids and more likely to set strict rules around drinking,” Ms Kelly said.

To learn more about Bendigo Community Health Services and our programs visit www.bchs.com.au or call (03) 5448 1600.