Business Decision Making And Association Against Alcohol Consumption In Queensland

Campaign Aim, Objective, Limitation

The public advocacy report aims to determine the measures against the drinking problem in Queensland, Australia. With the same, it would also influence the state government to take necessary steps for altering the legislative framework regarding the practice of alcohol consumption within the society. It has been observed from the journal of Fitts et al. (2017) that alcohol induced diseases are the 4^th largest reason behind death across Australia as per a survey conducted in 2011. Case of almost 1300 deaths and approximately 37,000 cases of hospitalization for alcohol addiction; have been confirmed by the same survey. Moreover, cases of disability among children are the evidences, which supports the assunptions of drinking during pregnancy. Apart from that, citizens experienced incidents of violence induced by intoxication during late hours of the night (Kypri, McElduff & Miller, 2016).

The ongoing culture is somewhat making the future of Queensland uncertain and blurry as children are engaging themselves into intoxicating practices from their early stage of teenage (Howard, Gordon & Jones, 2014). Therefore, the purpose of this advocacy report is to present an anti-alcohol campaign along with recommendations to influence the government for revising and protecting the legislature considering the contemporary needs of the society.  The entire report has been presented for the social interest only.

It has been observed that 21% of adult drinkers irrespective of gender have engaged themselves into lifetime risks due to daily consumption of liquors whereas 31% are occasional drinkers, yet carry several health risks. As an outsider promotional group, AAC aims to influence the Government of Queensland to put restrictions over the practice of consuming, manufacturing and distributing alcohol within the society to promote health benefits (Previte, Russell?Bennett & Parkinson, 2015).

With the same, the campaign will look into the matter of safe drinking in pubs, clubs by restricting service of alcoholic drinks from 2 am except in regions, which are safe at night (Kypri, McElduff & Miller, 2014). However, drinks cannot be served after 3 am in any of the licenced premises even. People under 18 years of age cannot consume or to be served alcoholic beverages according to the Liquor Act of 1992, framed under legislation of Queensland.  However, there is lack of awareness among people and this campaign will work on those gaps within the society.

• Association against Alcohol Consumption is acknowledging the increasing rate of physical and mental illness among the adults and even among the teenagers of Queensland. It tries to alter the existing lifestyle of the citizen by making them aware that what they are doing wrong with their life as well society(Hoffman et al., 2014).
• In order to influence government ministers to alter the legislation regarding restriction on consuming and serving alcohol. Besides, as the members are engaged in social service they can share opinion on drafting of legislative structure implementing the restriction on practice of consuming alcohol.
• There are several groups working on the same mission to bring a change within the society. Therefore, in order to shape public opinion a thought of jointly promoting the same mission is a good idea to work on.
• The campaign should be a remarkable one in front of other states and nations.

This public advocacy report considers AAC as an outsider promotional group, which consists of limited resources regarding both the monetary and physical strength. Their purpose is to make effective changes within a duration of roughly one year until the approach of next state election of Queensland.

Objective of the campaign

C.1 Strength of human resource

Currently, AAC consists of only 25 members belong to various social designations like professors, police officers, health practitioners like doctors and nurses. Voluntary members make an effort to invest their additional time into the noble mission of bring a change within the society. As the responsibility is huge and varied, the report recommends urgent requirement via advertisement or social networks to attract the attention of the groups sharing same mission to serve various purposes of the promotion (Turner et al., 2011).

C.2 Monetary resource

The report aims to attract the attention of donors from the community or corporate groups, as financially the group is not capable enough to broadcast the awareness among such broader domain. Therefore, the organisation decides to promote their purpose coupled with a fund raising process via a Facebook and twitter page (Rowland et al., 2013). Those pages are carrying a phone number where people can donate via Paytm. The report recommends utilizing low-cost or no-cost opportunities of public advertisement as per the availability.

C.3 Limitation of time

The agenda of this promotional group is to deliver effective results within a     scheduled time frame of approximate one year until the state government approaches for next election. This report is willing to recommend effective outcome out of the promotional strategies within the restriction of time (Rundle-Thiele et al., 2013). Considering the interest of political parties to gain positive image in front of the society and the role of media regarding promotional campaigns for social benefit just before the election, there is immense opportunity to succeed. Moreover, this voluntary promotional group consists of native political leaders who are struggling to serve the society in order to achieve a better position politically, will try to contribute in this initiative against the practice of excessive consumption of alcohol acknowledging the upcoming election (d’Abbs, 2015).

1. Expectation is the government will take effective measures based on the report provided by our group AAC. According to the views shared by Clough and Bird, (2015), as the central concern is to send a message to the government of Queensland that in spite of implementation of the rules and regulations, there is lack of awareness among the mass or they are just violating the law.
2. Social activists, native leaders are the voluntary part of Association against Alcohol Consumption.It can be assumed that it will help to promote our campaign on national level in front of health ministry of Queensland as they have well established contacts across society.
3. In the addition, the campaign finds its space in various medium of online or print media. Campaign will be broadcasted via television or radio advertisement considering citizens of Queensland as the biggest part of the audience. In order to establish the agenda the campaign tries to attract the attention of native drug action teams sharing same mission. It has been observed from the report of the teams working against consumption of the drugs that, doctors and nurses have confirmed the number of patients suffering from drug addiction has decreased after the campaigns started.  

• AAC have to convey their purpose to editor of daily newspapers to promote their agenda of bringing health benefits by restricting the manufacturing and distribution of alcohol.
• The audience group includes the doctors’ association of Queensland, news directors of esteemed daily newspapers, owners of pubs, clubs and bars. It is nothing but a process of generating mass awareness. The structuring of legislation is not enough, government should be aware to acknowledge the gaps, whether citizens are maintaining the guideline or not. Ultimate objective is to send the message in front of the cabinet ministers expecting effective transformation within the society, keeping the upcoming state election in mind.
• Apart from that, law should be strictly followed by the liquor manufacturers and distributers. Companies should understand the social concern instead of only following the trend of profit.
  1. Concisely, the report directly approaches to the consumers, people who are eligible for taking part in state election.

1. After receiving a detail insight from the studies of Lyvers et al., (2018), Association against Alcohol Consumption have set their agendas to create a significant impact on reducing the consumption of alcohol and other intoxicating products that influences lifetime risks. It has been noticed that the success rate is higher when these agendas come with advocacy for bringing change in legislature as well.
2. The activities of Queensland’s community should be under strict inspection in the case of drinking in public premises. The agendas have been set to prevent people from developing health risk due to consumption alcoholic drinks. All the agendas will be planned evaluating previous measures and collecting the best practices out of that.
3. The central concern is to raise mass awareness to a level where communities feel to work together against such noble cause and support the prevention activities against alcohol related problems. It is always better to work together that that of trying to raise voice individually.
4. Before framing the report, several media reports, and surveys on the annual reports of the hospitals should be consulted to gather credible data and a distinct perception.
5. Objectives should be realistic and achievable, framing and structuring down the agenda can help to follow as well as it can be evaluated in terms of gaining further funds to execute next agendas.

As evidence the study conducted by Bergqvist et al., (2013), can be mentioned, it has stated that each year the number of deaths from alcohol related cancer is increasing in Queensland. Cases of liver cancer, oral cavity, colon cancer and breast cancer among females have been spotted due to the unhealthy habit of excessive drinking. Cancer Council Queensland has recommended the citizen by initiating several campaigns to quit or at least restrict the amount of consumption to avoid developing the risk of fatal diseases (Pilgrim, Gerostamoulos & Drummer, 2014). The concern is national guideline had been framed ten years before and realising the need of revising the legislation this report has been presented to attract the attention of the government. It cannot be possible only by generating awareness among the communities, it is equally important to put restrictions on trading hours of alcoholic beverages in licenced premises. The data shared by Rundle-Thiele et al., (2013), supports the increasing rate of family or public violence and drinking among children. It has marked them as serious issues of social degradation induced by intoxication.

Resource Constraints

The report clearly acknowledges the need of low cost or no-cost mode of public interactions as AAC as a promotional group with outsider status does not have that much of monetary or human resources. Therefore, it would be a good idea to promote a web page instead of approaching other media channels.

1. Creation of AAC’s web page has been planned to design with the names, phone numbers and various links to reach our volunteers in case of donation or other official matters. Social media managers will be appointed to create and maintain regular posts and updates regarding daily agendas.
2. Every social network application like Facebook and twitter should carry an official page dedicated to promoting activities of AAC. Although, it has been observed in the studies of Atkinson et al., (2017), that young generation is influenced by advertisements on social works largely. AYouTube channel will broadcast the videos of campaign. It has been planned to include personal grievances of the citizens of Queensland, like opinions of health professionals, cancer survivors, and victims of alcohol-induced violence; these videos will help on a huge scale in order to understand the contemporary social situation (Calabria et al., 2013). Moreover, the acknowledgment of gaps will lead to the solution and influence governing bodies to reconsider the legislation regarding the consumption of alcohol.
3. Following up email and messages by calling them personally can bring fund or contacts of other group of social workers who can join and boost our resources with both work force and prior knowledge in this field.
4. The process of retweeting and answering messages and comments will initiate a practice of interactive sessions with the audiences.
5. The editorial section of the printing media should be utilized thoroughly dropping letters by highlighting the key aspects of drinking problem maintaining a certain periodical gap (Azar et al., 2013). It is the most traditional way to attract the attention of the governing bodies towards any social concern.
6. Although, it is a wise idea to submit an e-petition on the website of Queensland parliament. Apart from that with the help of native political leaders, hard copy of letters can be forwarded to native cabinet ministers to make them aware of the degrading scenario. The entire campaign can be more approachable, if the petitions are written with the links of every social sites belong to AAC along with the video links of YouTube channel.

The entire advocacy report will work towards attracting the attention of governing bodies to the alter terms of legislation in some specific areas. These areas are as follows:

• Considering the federal structure of the government, it has been planned to propose increment of taxes in the trading process of cheapest alcoholic drinks.
• Acknowledging the increased percentage of alcohol induced violence; trading hours should have been restricted in licenced premises. Pubs, bars and clubs cannot serve liquor after 2am as mentioned previously and in the cases of bombs or shots it should be stopped serving after midnight (Wilkinson, Livingston & Room, 2016).
• The licence of liquor is easily available across the state; therefore, communities cannot be accused alone in terms of excessive consumption (Munro et al., 2014).  Government should reduce the density of venues and bottle stores by restricting the procedure of sanctioning the license.
• In order to control the practice of drinking among the young population which causes both the physical and mental imbalance among them according to the studies of Manton and Moore, (2016), the liquor companies should avoid the path of extensive advertisement, especially the places which are easily accessible for teenagers. School or college premises, areas around children’s park or recreation centre, social networking sites should be avoided while posting advertisement of liquors (Alhabash et al., 2015).

Conclusion

Considering the mentality of social change as a noble objective, this public advocacy report expects to bring effective changes to the current scenario of degradation across the state of Queensland. However, preventing the community from an existing unhealthy practice is difficult for an outsider promotional group with limitation of both the monetary and human resources. As it has been organised by volunteers, people are neither bound to nor capable of dedicating themselves to accomplish the goals. There are already several non-profit groups, who are working against this issue same as AAC and implementing various community based programmes.

The response from the anti-alcoholic campaign will influence the government to rethink whether the legislative structure should be altered or not. Although, one of the purposes is to draw attention of governing bodies, it is a proven fact that public advocacy reports have great impact on the communities. Instead of waiting for the legislation to change or being strict, if communities take even minimum initiatives to make their future better by maintaining a healthy life and avoid the violation of law; then the purpose of Association against Alcohol Consumption will be fulfilled largely. 

References

Alhabash, S., McAlister, A. R., Quilliam, E. T., Richards, J. I., & Lou, C. (2015). Alcohol’s getting a bit more social: when alcohol marketing messages on Facebook increase young adults’ intentions to imbibe. Mass Communication and Society, 18(3), 350-375.

Atkinson, A. M., Ross-Houle, K. M., Begley, E., & Sumnall, H. (2017). An exploration of alcohol advertising on social networking sites: an analysis of content, interactions and young people’s perspectives. Addiction Research & Theory, 25(2), 91-102.

Azar, D., White, V., Bland, S., Livingston, M., Room, R., Chikritzhs, T., … & Wakefield, M. (2013). ‘Something’s brewing’: the changing trends in alcohol coverage in Australian newspapers 2000–2011. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 49(3), 336-342.

Bergqvist, C. J., Skoien, R., Horsfall, L., Clouston, A. D., Jonsson, J. R., & Powell, E. E. (2013). Awareness and opinions of non?alcoholic fatty liver disease by hospital specialists. Internal medicine journal, 43(3), 247-253.

Identification of Audiences

Calabria, B., Clifford, A., Shakeshaft, A., Allan, J., Bliss, D., & Doran, C. (2013). The acceptability to A boriginal A ustralians of a family?based intervention to reduce alcohol?related harms. Drug and alcohol review, 32(3), 328-332.

Clough, A. R., & Bird, K. (2015). The implementation and development of complex alcohol control policies in indigenous communities in Queensland (Australia). International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(4), 345-351.

d’Abbs, P. (2015). Widening the gap: The gulf between policy rhetoric and implementation reality in addressing alcohol problems among I ndigenous A ustralians. Drug and alcohol review, 34(5), 461-466.

Fitts, M. S., Robertson, J., Towle, S., Doran, C. M., McDermott, R., Miller, A., … & Clough, A. R. (2017). ‘Sly grog’and ‘homebrew’: a qualitative examination of illicit alcohol and some of its impacts on Indigenous communities with alcohol restrictions in regional and remote Queensland (Australia). BMC research notes, 10(1), 360.

Hoffman, E. W., Pinkleton, B. E., Weintraub Austin, E., & Reyes-Velázquez, W. (2014). Exploring college students’ use of general and alcohol-related social media and their associations with alcohol-related behaviors. Journal of American College Health, 62(5), 328-335.

Howard, S. J., Gordon, R., & Jones, S. C. (2014). Australian alcohol policy 2001–2013 and implications for public health. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 848.

Kypri, K., McElduff, P., & Miller, P. (2014). Restrictions in pub closing times and lockouts in Newcastle, A ustralia five years on. Drug and Alcohol Review, 33(3), 323-326.

Kypri, K., McElduff, P., & Miller, P. (2016). Night?time assaults in N ewcastle 6–7 years after trading hour restrictions. Drug and alcohol review, 35(2), E1-E2.

Lyvers, M., Coundouris, S., Edwards, M. S., & Thorberg, F. A. (2018). Alexithymia, reward sensitivity and risky drinking: the role of internal drinking motives. Addiction research & theory, 26(2), 114-122.

Manton, E., & Moore, D. (2016). Gender, intoxication and the developing brain: Problematisations of drinking among young adults in Australian alcohol policy. International Journal of Drug Policy, 31, 153-162.

Munro, G., Buykx, P., Ward, B., Rae, J., & Wiggers, J. (2014). Adult drinking in Australian schools. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 38(3), 205-208.

Pilgrim, J. L., Gerostamoulos, D., & Drummer, O. H. (2014). “King hit” fatalities in Australia, 2000–2012: The role of alcohol and other drugs. Drug and alcohol dependence, 135, 119-132.

Previte, J., Russell?Bennett, R., & Parkinson, J. (2015). Shaping safe drinking cultures: Evoking positive emotion to promote moderate?drinking behaviour. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 39(1), 12-24.

Rowland, B., Toumbourou, J. W., Osborn, A., Smith, R., Hall, J. K., Kremer, P., … & Leslie, E. (2013). A clustered randomised trial examining the effect of social marketing and community mobilisation on the age of uptake and levels of alcohol consumption by Australian adolescents. BMJ open, 3(1), e002423.

Rundle-Thiele, S., Russell-Bennett, R., Leo, C., & Dietrich, T. (2013). Moderating teen drinking: combining social marketing and education. Health Education, 113(5), 392-406.

Turner, L. R., Alderman, K., Huang, C., & Tong, S. (2013). Impact of the 2011 Queensland floods on the use of tobacco, alcohol and medication. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 37(4), 396-396.

Wilkinson, C., Livingston, M., & Room, R. (2016). Impacts of changes to trading hours of liquor licences on alcohol-related harm: a systematic review 2005–2015. Public Health Res Pract, 26(4).