From The Sunday Mail, April 1, 2007

Ban on parents supplying grog – Youth taskforce plan follows teenager’s party death

By: EDMUND BURKE and DAVID MURRAY

PARENTS caught supplying their underage children with alcohol face prosecution under proposals backed by Police Minister Judy Spence. The clampdown is among a string of recommendations the State Government’s youth taskforce will make this month to a review of the Liquor Act.

The taskforce was established in November after the violent death of Brisbane teenager Matt Stanley, 15, at an Alexandra Hills birthday party.

The teen’s father, Paul Stanley, who is on the taskforce, yesterday said parents needed to learn that supplying alcohol to their children was wrong. “What we have seen is that there is a trend out there for parents to buy alcohol for their children somehow believing that if they buy it for them they won’t get `smashed’,” he said. “But the research is telling us that this is rubbish. We want to see a situation where parents are not dropping their 15-year-olds off at parties with crates of beer. It is happening and it is irresponsible and it is wrong.” A youth, 16, has been charged with murdering Matt Stanley at an 18th birthday party on September 23.

The taskforce, set up with the support of The Sunday Mail, will recommend strict penalties for parents who supply alcohol to their underage children for parties or events such as Schoolies.Under present laws, it is illegal for an adult to supply alcohol to anyone under 18 but supply by parents is a legal grey area, with police turning a blind eye to the problem. A spokeswoman for Ms Spence said the range of penalties to be imposed against parents was still under consideration. A Federal Government report released this year showed 37 per cent of youths aged 12 to 17 said their parents had given them their most recent rink. Gold Coast police officers say it is common for schoolies to be supplied with liquor by their parents. “When they book in, you can see the number of parents who are supplying alcohol to their kids,” a policeman who worked the Cavill Mall precinct said yesterday.

Ms Spence supported the plans to clarify the law and attacked irresponsible parent. “Parents, adult supervisors and retailers need to know it is unacceptable to provide alcohol to under-age drinkers,” Ms Spence said. “Many young people experiment with alcohol and drugs and it is important they are continually reminded of the risks and the penalties.” Secondary supply of alcohol and internet sales of alcohol are expected to be targeted by the crackdown. “Parents who allow their children to drink moderately at home will not be singled out,” Ms Spence’s spokeswoman said. “But the recommendations will concentrate on stopping parents supplying alcohol to teenagers for parties, Schoolies and other events.”

Griffith University criminologist Prof Paul Mazerolle, who is also a member of the taskforce, said research had shown that parental assumptions that it was safer to introduce their own children to alcohol were not correct. “It is a flawed assumption and parents probably should be concentrating more on teaching their children about the negative consequences of alcohol,” he said. “We have got a problem with binge drinking in Australia and one of the consequences of that is the terrible violence we are seeing among young people.”

The recommendations will be made to the Department of Tourism, Fair Trading and Wine Industry Development’s Liquor Act review, which is looking at ways to modernise Queensland’s 1992 Liquor Act. Last week a survey revealed alcohol is to blame for more than a quarter of all deaths among young people in the developed world.

The Deakin University study, published in the international medical journal The Lancet, found liquor caused 27 per cent of deaths in Australia in 2002 involving 15 to 29-year-olds.

This was the paper’s Editorial in response to the previous story:

Parents on notice

ALCOHOL takes a terrible toll on the young. A new study reveals that alcohol-related disease, accidents, violence and suicide account for one in four deaths of Australians aged 15 to 29. The evidence is all about us that young people are drinking earlier, drinking more and suffering the consequences. The pain is shared by their families and innocents who cross their paths or share the roads with them.

It is intolerable that a significant number of these drinkers are of an age when, traditionally, we would expect parents to exert more control. Most parents do fulfil their responsibilities, leading by example and encouraging a responsible attitude towards drinking. However, an inordinate number have abrogated their responsibilities, turning a blind eye to the foolish excesses of their children and even helping them find their way around the drinking laws. Notoriously, there is ample evidence of parents supplying copious amounts of alcohol for Schoolies, our most high-profile frenzy of underage drinking.

Proposed changes to the Liquor Act to prohibit the supply of alcohol to minors by parents would be a powerful weapon in the hands of police as they confront the consequences of feral parenting. The youth violence taskforce proposal realistically would not impact on parents who might want to encourage responsible, supervised and discerning social drinking in the home. However, it would rein in those who stupidly aid and abet their children in what is an illegal and highly risky activity.

This proposal and a plan to increasingly monitor alcohol promotions are worthwhile initiatives that should be implemented as a matter of urgency. Along with a program to examine the use of knives and other weapons by young people — often while inflamed with alcohol — they are a demonstration that the taskforce is more than a gabfest and has much to offer in tackling the problems of youth.