Alcohol-related deaths and harms are rising, yet schools and organisations associated with them still promote drinking. Education should help break the cycle, not reinforce it.

The misuse of alcohol in Australia takes an enormous toll on individuals, families and the wider community.

While deaths from smoking cigarettes, for example, are decreasing, reliable statistics indicate that the damage and harms caused by alcohol are increasing substantially.

In 2025, it is estimated that there were 1,765 annual deaths directly caused by alcohol (such as acute alcohol poisoning and liver cirrhosis). This is the highest rate recorded in a decade. But where alcohol was a major contributing cause of death (including alcohol-induced cancers, road accidents and stroke), alcohol claimed approximately 6,000 Australian lives last year. The majority of these deaths were men.

Fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg. The harms caused by........

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