| UOW Black Opal members (from left) Shibani Iyer, Thomas Griffiths, Sa... UOW Black Opal members (from left) Shibani Iyer, Thomas Griffiths, Sarah Brannon and Aaron Melville, who are among the organisers of the Binge Cringe debate on 5 August |
Students hosting binge drinking debate
24 Jul 2008 | Nick Hartgerink
Binge drinking is high on the national agenda, with the Federal Government concerned that alcohol abuse has reached epidemic proportions.
On the other hand, some people are concerned that the Government is over-reacting by labelling anyone who has four or more standard drinks in a day a binge drinker.
And many young people are concerned that they are being unfairly targeted in a Government plan to drastically increase taxes on pre-mixed packaged alcoholic drinks to make them virtually unaffordable for the young market they largely cater for.
Now University of Wollongong students and staff will have the chance to have their say on whether Australia has a culture of alcohol abuse and what can be done about it at a public debate on 5 August.
Organised by UOW’s student leadership group Black Opal, the Binge Cringe debate will address binge drinking trends affecting the region’s youth, including university students.
Four members of the Black Opal organising group - Aaron Melville, Sarah Brannon, Thomas Griffiths and Shibani Iyer - got together recently to explain what the Binge Cringe debate is all about and to encourage UOW students and staff to attend.
They said it was designed to give people a chance to discuss an important social issue, and they hoped it would generate a wide cross-section of opinions.
“It will be a very open forum where everyone will get the chance to have a say,” Sarah said. “We don’t have a particular agenda that we want to push. We want people to tell us what is relevant to them.”
Shibani said the debate would give young people the chance to express opinions about an issue that affects them. “We want young people to understand the influence we can have and that we have a voice,” she said.
Aaron said he and Thomas had carried out an informal poll on campus and weren’t surprised to discover that under the Government’s new four standard drinks criteria “the majority of people we spoke to can probably be classified as binge drinkers”.
“But I don’t think it is so much an issue of how much you drink but whether you do it every day, and the reasons why you are drinking,” he said.
Thomas added: “The four drinks limit is probably a bit conservative, but you can see where they (health authorities) are coming from.”
The debate will be held in UOW’s Communications Centre (Building 20) on Tuesday, 5 August at 7pm. All welcome.
For more information, contact Shibani at shibani@uow.edu.au
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