Alcohol home delivery – Common sense measures to protect Australian families
The role of alcohol in escalating family and domestic violence is widely recognised. In 2024, Cancer Council WA conducted an audit of online alcohol home delivery retailers operating in Western Australia to identify opportunities to reduce this risk. This post by Fraser Edwardes and Joelie Mandzufas discusses the results of that audit, as well as some recent industry practices that are putting families at increased risk of harm, and calls on state governments to strengthen community protections.
The increasing availability of alcohol via online sales and home delivery presents a major challenge for public health. The expansion of online sales and delivery in Australia represents the biggest shift in alcohol availability in recent years. Alcohol companies have rapidly expanded their capacity to sell their products online, making alcohol more readily available and convenient to access at home. Phones have become personal bottle shops, with alcohol available to be delivered quickly and late at night directly into homes, where alcohol use would have otherwise been limited to what’s already on hand.
A key concern is the added risk this presents to women and children.
The role of alcohol in exacerbating drivers of family and domestic violence is well established. Evidence demonstrates use of alcohol by perpetrators of violence increases both frequency and severity of violence against family members. In Australia, alcohol is involved in up to 65% of all family and domestic violence incidents reported to police. This violence disproportionately impacts women and children. Online sales and home delivery exacerbates risk to women and children by allowing more alcohol into the home, including at night, when harm is most likely to occur.
Given the ongoing expansion of online sales and home delivery as a method of supplying alcohol, it is important to understand how retailers are operating and monitor changes that may affect community health and safety. Cancer Council WA conducted an audit of online alcohol retailers delivering to Perth metro and regional Western Australia, with a focus on business practices that may put women and families at increased risk from harm. Retailers were included if they were able to deliver alcohol to randomly selected addresses across metro and regional areas. All data was collected from information publicly available on retailers’ websites. Our results confirmed that alcohol can be delivered quickly, at low cost and left unattended at the door.
No retailers required age verification (online ID checks) to purchase alcohol online;
61% (n=30) offered delayed payment through ‘buy now, pay later’ options;
Nine retailers offered rapid delivery (<2 hours) to Perth metro and three within regional WA; and
29% (n=14) explicitly stated that they would leave next day deliveries unattended.
The results come three years since the introduction of liquor delivery regulations in WA prohibiting same day deliveries from being left unattended or with a person under the age of 18. Cancer Council WA conducted a similar audit before these regulations were introduced. The number of alcohol retailers delivering cheap alcohol to the Perth metro area and regional WA has increased, making cheap alcohol more accessible at home than ever before.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence on harmful online sales and delivery practices in WA. Researchers from Deakin University found people who drank at high risk levels were more likely to use online delivery more often, use rapid or same day delivery to order higher volumes of alcohol and extend drinking sessions, and order alcohol while intoxicated. These same people were also more likely to receive targeted promotions for buying alcohol online, including push notifications, buy now buttons and direct prompts.
The combination of increased alcohol accessibility, targeted and predatory marketing from alcohol companies, and ineffective or non-existent controls on delivery practices is adding unnecessary risk to Australian communities. Alcohol companies, who have seen online sales grow substantially in recent years, have engaged in practices that put families at increased risk from harm. These include denying legitimate evidence of harmful online sales practices, funding their own research to refute and distort evidence of harms, and directly engaging with policymakers to reject the implementation of common-sense protections overwhelmingly supported by Australian communities.
Policymakers play a key role in protecting women, children and communities from the harms of alcohol. In what was the culmination of months of community campaigning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and First Ministers of state and territory governments committed to review current alcohol laws and their role in family and domestic violence.
State governments can leverage the current momentum to strengthen alcohol home delivery laws, prevent harm to women and children, and ensure families feel safe in their own home. Cancer Council WA joins a range of community and health organisations calling for stronger community protections when it comes to the online sale and delivery of alcohol. That includes:
a 2-hour safety pause between order and delivery to prevent the rapid delivery of alcohol into homes;
effective digital age verification at point of sale and ID checks on delivery to ensure deliveries aren’t left unattended or with an intoxicated person; and
keeping deliveries between 10am and 10pm, to minimise the risks from alcohol use in the home late at night.
These common-sense measures can put an end to harmful online sales practices and help prevent alcohol related family violence in the home.
Authors: Fraser Edwardes and Joelie Mandzufas, Cancer Council Western Australia
Content moderator: Sue Olney