Ministry of Health forced to release documents showing alcohol lobby influence

RNZ News

18 hours ago

The spirits industry says it supports targeted programmes but believes the draft Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder strategy is too broad. File photo
Photo:
By Angie Garrett from Ridgely, USA [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Alcohol lobbyists pushed health officials not to raise taxes, curb supply or cut industry sponsorship of sport - despite those measures being endorsed by the World Health Organisation as among the most effective ways to reduce alcohol harm.
The tactics are laid bare in documents the Ministry of Health tried to keep secret, only releasing them after RNZ appealed to the Ombudsman. They also show industry efforts to shape a government strategy to combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Officials handed the draft FASD plan to alcohol companies for feedback - while keeping it from the public. Spirits New Zealand dismissed estimates that up to 3000 babies are born with the disorder each year as "not credible" and attacked a taxpayer-funded ad campaign from 2019, even though it won five awards.
Health Coalition Aotearoa said the industry should have no role in shaping alcohol policy. But the ministry's deputy director general Andrew Old defended its engagement, insisting companies had no special access.
"They certainly haven't had any particular special treatment or back door into the ministry. It's been a deliberate, structured approach. They've had quarterly meetings with the team," Old said.
"I can absolutely and categorically say that there is no veto power. So if the industry says 'we don't want to see this', that has no bearing on the outcome. It is a view that is considered alongside a range of other views."
Old accepted the alcohol industry was motivated by profit.
"I also would hope that, in doing that, they don't want to be doing harm," he said. "There's clearly a conflict. But, to my mind, it's not an irreconcilable conflict that would mean that we should just never talk to them."
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Alcohol lobbyists were also given a draft investment strategy on how to spend the Alcohol Levy, a ring-fenced fund of $16.6 million for alcohol harm reduction measures.
The documents include an email from Spirits NZ to the MOH, saying there was intense interest in the Alcohol Levy, which is funded from a small tax on sales - equivalent to less than one cent on a standard can of beer.
"My members with global links are seeking advice from their HQ's from London to Louisville, Kentucky - yes, this is how important this matter is to them," the lobbyist says, in a November 2024 email to the MOH.
The documents show industry concern the Alcohol Levy would be spent on programmes based on the WHO's SAFER strategy, which says that, globally, a person dies every ten seconds due to alcohol related causes.
"The WHO SAFER strategies include measures like restricting availability and raising excise taxes," a submission from the Brewers Association says.
"These broad based initiatives are generally seen as reducing consumption overall and not targeting harmful consumption."
The Brewers Association said there was an "overemphasis on restrictions" in the WHO guidelines.
"Metrics tied to SAFER principles could incentivise programmes that focus excessively on punitive measures, such as limiting availability and marketing, rather than collaborative, education-based harm reduction approaches."
The Brewers Association also warned against using the Alcohol Levy to fund "controversial" programmes it believes won't reduce harmful consumption.
"Examples raised in our meeting included research with little application actions in the outcomes, funding of legal support for opposition of licences and replacing sponsorship arrangements in sport organisations with funds from the levy."
The documents, which the MOH tried to withhold using a section of the OIA designed to protect advice between Ministers and officials until overruled by the Ombudsman, also include industry critique of the FASD strategy.
Spirits New Zealand, which represents the likes of Asahi, Bacardi, Diageo, Lion, Moet-Hennessy and Pernod Ricard, warned against launching action on FASD without knowing what the prevalence was.
It took issue with estimates, based on international studies and expert opinion, that 3-5 percent of babies - 1800 to 3000 every year - are born with FASD.
"This is simply not credible and is similar to the situation that existed when the last plan was developed in 2016," the lobbyists say.
"We cannot see how any FASD-prevention plan can be started without good data as a baseline. We would ask that the Public Health Agency give assurances that work on measurement frameworks occurs prior to other plan elements being launched."
Leigh Henderson, chair of the advocacy group FASD-CAN, was concerned the alcohol industry doubted the prevalence of FASD.
"Are they saying, 'Okay, it's all right for 500 babies to be born, but not 1800," she asked. "We know it's not 100 percent preventable, but to try and downplay it in that way is just callous and not recognising the level of the problem."
In a statement chief executive Robert Brewer said Spirits NZ "categorically denies" downplaying the extent of FASD.
"The government can't fix a problem if it doesn't know its true extent, level of occurrence, who is affected and why and to do this you need good data. This is basic public policy."
Henderson said the motivation of the industry was clear, given its opposition during the 20 year battle to get mandatory pregnancy warning labels on alcohol.
The spirits industry says it supports targeted programmes but believes the draft FASD strategy is too broad.
It raised the ad campaign 'Pre-Testie Bestie' as an example, saying its "ultimate audience seemed to be any woman of child-bearing age who may or may not be having sex and who may or may not be pregnant".
It said that was "an impossible audience to communicate with" as the campaign, funded by the Health Promotion Agency (HPA), was trying to be both targeted and national.
But the HPA (now part of Health New Zealand) said in its 2019 Annual Report that 38 percent of women aged 18 to 30 saw the campaign and 70 percent of them got the key message: "Don't drink if you are or might be pregnant".
The Pre-Testie Bestie ad campaign won five Axis Awards.
The spirits industry also took issue with the draft FASD strategy saying New Zealand is a country where "alcohol is highly accessible, use is normalised," and there are high rates of hazardous drinking.
Brewer said hazardous drinking had declined over the last four years in New Zealand to just 16 percent of adults.