New Zealanders’ support for alcohol control policies

On request, The George Institute for Global Health prepared this report for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to contribute to their rapid review of data on New Zealanders’ attitudes to alcohol policy interventions. This involved secondary analyses of international data on public support for 14 alcohol control policies, focusing on the New Zealand-specific information from the larger data set.

This report examines New Zealanders’ support for policies relating to the provision of alcohol-related information to consumers, restricting alcohol advertising and sponsorship, and implementing a government harm-reduction taskforce. Examples include ‘Alcohol products should have health warning labels on the package’ and ‘Alcohol sponsorships should be removed from elite/professional sport’.

Overall, most New Zealanders supported many of the assessed alcohol control policies. Females, older adults, those with a lower household income, and those who abstain from drinking were more likely to indicate support.

The report provides Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand with important information regarding support for alcohol control policies in New Zealand and demographic differences in levels of support for these policies.