The federal government should finally crack down on alcohol advertising and require warning labels on booze after the bashing death of Thomas Kelly, the head of the Australian Medical Association says.
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Steve Hambleton says Australia's binge-drinking culture is getting worse and every capital city has pockets where drunken violence occurs.
Dr Hambleton yesterday praised the Gillard government for getting tough on big tobacco but said it now needed to act on the recommendations of its own preventative health taskforce when it came to alcohol.
The taskforce called in 2010 for a ban on alcohol advertising during children's shows and live sport broadcasts, a crackdown on sponsorship of sporting codes and the introduction of health labels on bottles and cans.
''We do need to look at advertising and information to the consumers that is realistic, and warning labels is the first place to start,'' the AMA president said at the National Press Club.
Governments had been too slow to act, just as in the early days of the tobacco debate, partly because ''there's a lot of money coming into government via excises, charges and taxes from alcohol'', he said.
The doctor's plea comes as the NSW government moves to crack down on pubs and clubs in Sydney's Kings Cross that have been flouting liquor laws.
The audit is in response to the death of Mr Kelly, 18, who was king-hit while walking along the neon-lit grog mecca earlier this month.
''I just feel so sorry for individuals like that young man who lost his life,'' Dr Hambleton said.
''I hope he's the last one but sadly I don't think he will be.''
He also slammed the availability of energy drinks in licensed venues because they stopped people realising just how drunk they were.
''Mixing the two is a deadly cocktail,'' he said.
An acceptance of public drunkenness in Australia was part of the problem, Dr Hambleton said.
A month ago federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek insisted the government had ''no intention of banning alcohol advertising''.
Auditors began visiting licensed premises in the Cross on Tuesday night to inspect incident registers and cross-check them with CCTV footage from inside the venues.
''Whatever miscompliance there may be, there are a range of sanctions,'' NSW Hospitality Minister George Souris said.
''The Liquor Act itself is powerful enough to undertake whatever sanctions are required and whatever sanctions are necessary as a result of miscompliance.'' These included stripping liquor licences and fines.
Mr Souris said it would take at least four days to visit all the venues and additional time for incident registers and CCTV footage to be correlated.
The minister denied claims made by NSW Greens MP John Kaye that pubs and clubs had been tipped off about the audit before the plan was formally announced at a community forum on Tuesday night.
Premier Barry O'Farrell said the audit was one part of an attempt to combat alcohol-fuelled violence across the state. AAP
