A paper released by Health Minister Simon Corbell on Tuesday paints a troubling picture of alcohol use and abuse in Canberra, with assaults increasing in the city centre since 2010 despite reforms introduced then.

Canberra's emergency departments are also facing an increase in intoxication cases, up 35 per cent, and injuries, up 24 per cent in the three years. The hospitals report serious injuries including skull fractures, bleeding to the brain and permanent brain injury.

The issues paper, out for public comment, points to a problem with "pre-loading" where people avoid paying bar prices by drinking before they go out. It says the hours that alcohol can be sold in bottle stores and supermarkets are among the longest in the country, from 7am till 11pm, with most other jurisdictions closing at 10pm.

For bars and clubs, standard hours are 7am till midnight, but they can apply to stay open longer and 89 are open after midnight. Forty-eight are open after 3am, closing as late as 5am, many of them in the city.

While alcohol-related crime had fallen 11 per cent since 2010, the picture had got worse in the city, assaults increasing, and peaking between midnight and 6am.

It suggests limiting bottle store and supermarket sales to 9am or 10am opening, and 10pm closing. It suggests a closing time for bars and clubs of 3am. It asks whether different closing times should apply in different areas, targeting problem spots like the city centre, and canvasses limiting the number of outlets in the city. It asks whether closing times should be staggered to avoid large groups in the streets at the same time, and whether lockouts should be imposed, where no one is allowed in after a certain time.

The report focuses on cheap sales in supermarkets and bottle stores and suggests ideas to boost prices, including a minimum price, and banning promotions such as discount vouchers. Canberra and NSW are the only jurisdictions allowing supermarket sales.

Nicole, from Mooseheads, who did not want her last name used, said the government would destroy the city centre with tighter controls. She supported a bigger focus on bottle stores, which she said could sell without fear of consequences, whereas bars were already tightly controlled and could not admit or sell to intoxicated people. But she was strongly opposed to shorter opening hours and lockouts, which would only push the problem to other parts of the city where it was more difficult to monitor.

The government blamed alcohol, but the real problems were with ice, which had become an epidemic and must be addressed, she said.

Australians are big drinkers, with an average consumption of 2.2 drinks a day for everyone aged 15 and up. Every day, 430 people are hospitalised and 15 people die as a result of alcohol.

National drinking rates, though, are on the way down. But not in Canberra, where drinking is on the increase. In 2013, 6.6 per cent of Canberrans were drinking every day in 2013, up from with 5.4 per cent in 2010.

Eighty-three per cent of Canberrans aged 14 or over drink, compared with 78 per cent nationally. And 22 per cent down more than two drinks a day, putting them in danger of long-term harm, compared with 18 per cent nationally.

Risky levels of drinking are also higher in Canberra, with 55 per cent of males and 34 per cent of females reporting more than four standard drinks on a single occasion, compared with national figures of 48 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women.

Mr Corbell said he had an open mind on new measures and expected to bring forward legislation next year.

"I have deliberately sought to put the broadest range of views in this discussion paper because the level of alcohol related harm in our community is too high and it is causing too much harm – not just to people themselves but to innocent bystanders, families, and pressures on our health, hospital, ambulance and justice systems," he said.