Surfing Australia has turned to the alcohol industry for sponsorship, after funding from the federal government’s anti-alcohol health promotion organisation dried up.
The Australian National Preventive Health Agency partnered with 17 sporting organisations including Surfing Australia, Netball Australia and Swimming Australia through its anti-alcohol “Be the Influence” program, which helped those sports remain free from alcohol promotion by buying up their alcohol funding.
But the federal government abolished Anpha in the 2014 budget to save $6.4m over five years.
Surfing Australia has now filled the gap left by “Be the Influence” with Lion’s XXXX Summer Bright Lager. Guardian Australia understands this makes it the first national sporting body to have replaced the agency’s funding with that of an alcohol sponsor.
Surfing Australia was yet to return requests for comment at the time of publishing.
In September Stephen Leeder, emeritus professor of public health with the University of Sydney, predicted that the alcohol industry would be quick to offer money to those sports organisations affected by ANPHA’s demise.
“It’s not very nice to simply gloat and say, I told you so,” but this sort of thing happens when public resources are withdrawn from prevention initiatives,” Leeder told Guardian Australia.
“If you set about removing the capacity for government funding to support groups then we can’t really blame them from taking support from others that seek to sponsor them.
“It seems to me that we as a community need to ask ourselves to what extent we support prevention. Do we just leave it all to the market and let profiteering groups go on their merry way and not take action on behalf of ordinary citizens? I don’t blame Surfing Australia, but I don’t congratulate them.”
Guardian Australia has contacted the office of the federal health minister, Sussan Ley, for comment.
As part of the two-year sponsorship deal, Surfing Australia will roll out the “You won’t miss a moment” campaign under the Drinkwise initiative, which is sponsored by the alcohol industry.
According to the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, Drinkwise is “wholly funded by the alcohol industry and governed by a board whose 13 members include six alcohol industry representatives”.
The “You won’t miss a moment” ads around sporting events push a message of alcohol moderation rather than abstinence, but have been criticised as “a cleverly disguised beer ad” by public health advocates.
A professor of health policy at Curtin University and director of the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth, Mike Daube, said Anpha’s “Be the influence” initiative was the government’s “one real response to alcohol sponsorship”.
He said it was disappointing the government had not foreseen the effects of its de-funding. Daube also urged Surfing Australia to reconsider the sponsorship deal.
“There are so many reasons why it’s inappropriate for surfing to be sponsored by a beer company,” Daube said.
“Children are heavily involved in surfing. Amazingly, the picture on the sponsorship media release is of a young child; it’s staggering that nobody seems to have considered how inappropriate this is.
“Surfing Australia also had links to programs including SurfGroms and Surfer Groms Comps for children as young as under eight. Given the concerns about alcohol and water safety, it’s all the more inappropriate for surfing to be sponsored by a beer company.”
According to Surfing Australia’s code of conduct for its Australian Boardriders Battle event, no alcohol is to be brought into the event area, no alcohol branding is allowed on any club item, no alcohol can be brought to the presentation and there can be no references to alcohol during any acceptance speeches.
“Any breaches of the above will result in the disqualification of the surfer and or club,” the code says.
- This story was amended on 18 August to specify which Drinkwise campaign Surfing Australia will use.
