Nicholas Patrick Taylor and Peter Miller
February 11, 2021
The ‘floor price’ for alcohol introduced by the Northern Territory in 2018 reduced the consumption of cask wine by half, without significantly impacting sales of other types of alcohol, according to our new analysis of the policy’s effectiveness.
On October 1, 2018, the NT introduced a minimum price of $1.30 per unit (equivalent to 10 grams of pure alcohol or one standard drink) on alcohol, in a bid to tackle problem drinking.
The price was chosen to target cheap wines that have historically been an issue throughout the NT, while not influencing other liquor types.
In Australia, an estimated 75% of all alcohol is consumed by the top 20% of its heaviest drinkers a group the alcohol industry depends on and actively targets, labelling them as super consumers.
Disclosure statement
The study this article is based on was funded by the Hospital Research Foundation, managed by the Northern Territory Department of Health.
Nicholas Patrick Taylor receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the Northern Territory government, and a research grant from the Queensland government.
Peter Miller receives funding from Australian Research Council and Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, grants from NSW Government, National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, Cancer Council Victoria, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Northern Territory government, Australian Rechabites Foundation, Northern Territory Primary Health Network, Lives Lived Well, Queensland government and Australian Drug Foundation, travel and related costs from Queensland Police Service, Queensland Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing and the Austral