Australia in two-night blitz on alcohol violence

By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney

Although Australia has a drinking culture, people in the UK drink more

Australian police are beginning their biggest coordinated operation to curb alcohol-related violence.

Operation Unite, deploying thousands of extra officers, will be the most widespread and concerted blitz in Australia and will last for two nights.

It is an attempt to send the message that excessive alcohol consumption and bad behaviour will not be tolerated.

Alcohol-related violence, including sexual assaults and fights, has nearly doubled in the past decade and a half.

Drinking age calls

A wave of intoxication has spread, especially over the young, due in large part to liberal licensing laws and a deep-seated culture of drinking.

This weekend police will flood into towns and cities in an unprecedented show of force.

Our casual approach to drinking in our society is actually destroying lives and destroying people Alan Morrison, New South Wales Ambulance Service

Undercover officers will join their uniformed colleagues along with dog squads and mounted units.

Each week the abuse of alcohol kills on average more than 60 Australians, while 1,500 end up in hospital.

Alan Morrison from the New South Wales Ambulance Service says what he calls an epidemic of self-destruction must be addressed.

"There certainly is a cultural acceptance of drinking in Australia and I'm not sure I understand why that is the case.

"I see the effects of it all the time and I think most people don't come into contact with the kind of things paramedics or police or emergency departments see to understand that our casual approach to drinking in our society is actually destroying lives and destroying people", he said.

Health workers have called on the government to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 19.

Neurological experts have warned that binge drinking could be inflicting untold damage on the brains of young Australians.

Although this country has always had a boozy reputation, it ranks about 20th in the global alcohol consumption league table.

People in Britain, for example, drink about 25% more than their Australian counterparts.

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