Professor Sandra Jones knows a thing or two about young people and alcohol abuse.
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The University of Wollongong academic has delved deep into the issue through her research at UOWs Centre for Health Initiatives and will today pass on some of her knowledge in the hope it will inform new measures to combat alcohol abuse.
Prof Jones will speak and take questions at a NSW Parliament inquiry which seeks to establish new strategies to reduce alcohol abuse among the state's youth.
While youth drinking is the focus of the inquiry, Prof Jones said the problem cut right across the age spectrum.
"We're not going to be able to change young people's drinking if we don't change the way we position alcohol in our society.
"We absolutely need to do something about alcohol abuse among young people, but that's not as simple as saying young people have a problem that we have to fix, it's about saying: Well what is it about the environment that we're bringing our young people up in that's making (alcohol) for them the most desirable choice?" she said.
Research had already revealed what works to reduce harm - increasing the price, reducing availability and banning or restricting the nature of alcohol advertising, Prof Jones said.
"We know those things are really effective, but they are all things that governments are typically quite reluctant to do.
"There are a lot of other things that will work and will help, but if we're not serious about addressing some of those aspects then a lot of the other things that we're doing will be a drop in the ocean."
Prof Jones said alcohol advertising, her primary area of expertise, was particularly problematic, with ineffective and confounding advertising rules little match for the brazen methods used by alcohol companies.
"There's alcohol marketing everywhere and it's so ubiquitous that half the time we don't even notice it because it's just there," she said.
Despite the rules against advertising alcohol to children, alcohol-branded products, such as clothing, chocolates, and even barbecue sauces, were readily available in supermarkets and department stores, Prof Jones said.
"It's not surprising that our kids all know who the Bundy Bear is.
"If we restrict alcohol advertising I don't believe we harm anyone except the industry," Prof Jones said.
Another public hearing is scheduled for June 17 with findings to be revealed later this year.