Policy & Issues

Alcohol & Health

Australian Grape & Wine believes wine should be enjoyed in moderation and that wine companies must encourage and promote responsible consumption. However, we strongly reject increasingly strident rhetoric from interest groups seeking to deny wine’s legitimate and accepted place in modern society.

DrinkWise FASD Program 2018-2021
DrinkWise advises women to abstain from alcohol if planning a pregnancy, pregnant or breastfeeding, in line with government guidelines. Current programs and new initiatives will assist in raising awareness of the risks and effects of consuming alcohol during pregnancy, with the ultimate goal of preventing FASD.

Initiatives include:

  • Primary Care Settings (waiting rooms of general practices)
  • Aboriginal Medical Services and Select GP locations
  • Community Education FASD
  • Community radio programs
  • Print media
  • Labelling on products and packaging (Supply and promotion of labelling logos)
  • DrinkWise Website Portal 
  • Point of Sale – Liquor Stores / Hotels / Cellar doors / Winery restaurants
  • Outdoor advertising
  • Online advertising


More information on FASD can be found at www.DrinkWise.org.au

Responsible Drinking – Cellar Door Resources.
We want to ensure visitors to Australia’s cellar doors have a great experience, for all the right reasons.

Australian Grape & Wine recognises the importance of industry providing consumers with information about alcohol content and health messages about responsible drinking, so they can make informed choices about their own alcohol consumption.

With approximately eight million visitors to wineries across Australia annually, multiple tastings on offer at each cellar door and multiple cellar doors visited, consumers need an easy and effective means to track their drinking, especially if they are driving.

This is why Australian Grape & Wine has partnered with DrinkWise to create resources designed to increase consumer understanding of how many pours (tastings) add up to a standard drink.  The resources provide a practical solution for consumers to moderate their drinking during their winery visits and have been provided to over 1,700 cellar doors across Australia.

Read More…

Download Drinkwise Cellar Door Materials


Health Labelling
New requirements for mandatory pregnancy warning labels on packaged alcoholic beverages were gazetted in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) on 31 July 2020.

Businesses have three years from 31 July 2020 to implement these requirements.

Packaged alcoholic beverages with more than 1.15% alcohol by volume for retail sale in Australia and New Zealand (or sold as suitable for retail sale without any further processing, packaging or labelling) must display a pregnancy warning label, except when the beverage is packaged in the presence of the purchaser.

This exception means, for example, wine or beer served in a glass at a restaurant or bar, fill your own container at a bottle store, or additional packaging applied in the presence of the retail purchaser, are not required to display a pregnancy warning label.

The requirement to display a pregnancy warning label applies to, for example, relevant packaged alcoholic beverages that are:

  • made and packaged on the premises from which they are offered for retail sale
  • delivered packaged and ready for consumption, at the express order of the retail purchaser
  • sold at a fund raising event
  • displayed in an assisted service display cabinet
  • sold from a vending machine 2
  • sold at retail in a hamper.

Download full FSANZ Q&A Document

For further information on label design elements and downloadable labels visit the FSANZ Website.


National Alcohol Strategy
The National Alcohol Strategy 2019-2028 has been endorsed by Federal, State and Territory Health Ministers and was released on Monday 3 December 2019. On balance, the strategy reasonable – recognising that trends in dangerous drinking are heading in the right direction, and focusing on options governments can consider to prevent and treat alcohol related harms. Importantly, please note the strategy does not impose binding commitments on any government, but it can provide the political impetus to pursue some of the options in the plan.

While Minimum Unit Pricing is put forward as an option for governments to consider, along with changes to a volumetric tax system, the Minister for Health, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, said in his press release that “The Morrison Government considers Australia’s current alcohol taxation setting are appropriate and has no plans to make any changes” and “pricing mechanisms such as a Minimum Unit Price on alcohol are a matter for the States and Territories.” A Minimum Unit Price for alcohol would be damaging for the sector, and early indications from the Northern Territory’s experiment with such measures suggest it is leading to perverse outcomes. We will continue to watch this space and advocate against the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing in Australia. On a more pleasing note, the strategy also suggests that Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) arrangements be standardised nationally, which is an issue many members have raised with us. Australian Grape & Wine will use this as a basis for pursuing reform in this area in the coming year, although we expect getting the states and territories onto the same page will take time.

Other Resources

The wine industry also:

  • helps fund the operations of DrinkWise Australia, which runs national information and education campaigns designed to change Australia’s drinking culture
  • helps fund and manage the Alcohol Beverage Advertising Code (ABAC) which, with Government support, provides advertising guidelines and a pre-vetting service to industry and adjudicates on public complaints about alcohol advertising
  • runs the National Wine Foundation, which funds projects that address social problems which can lead to alcohol abuse.
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