A significant majority of Australians think we drink too much alcohol, the annual Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education's national poll has shown.
The online poll, which surveyed 1820 people, found seventy-eight per cent of people believe Australia has a problem with excess drinking.
Queenslanders were the most likely to drink heavily, with 52 per cent drinking to get drunk compared to an Australian average of 44 per cent.
Victorians were the most likely to consume six or more alcoholic drinks at a sitting (21 per cent) compared to NSW (17 per cent).
Some 43 per cent of 25-34 year-olds typically consume up to two standard drinks compared to 18 per cent in the same age group who typically had six or more drinks.
Drinking a schooner of cider on Wednesday, Kristin O'Brien is in a minority when it comes to her attitudes towards alcohol.
Yet Ms O'Brien, a 33-year-old American-Australian, said Australia has a healthier drinking culture than the United States.
"I would say I've noticed Americans, a lot more times, drink to get drunk," she said.
In comparison, she said, Australians tended to drink less alcohol more often. "From my experience, I've seen more binge drinking over there."
The poll found 59 per cent of 25-34 year-olds drink to get drunk compared to 70 per cent of 18-24 year-olds.
Yet more 18-24 year-olds were teetotallers (28 per cent) than 25-34 year-olds (14 per cent) and 35-49 year-olds (21 per cent).
The poll found high levels of support for policies such as a closing time for bottle shops of no later than 10pm (54 per cent) and a closing time for pubs, clubs and bars of no later than 3am (82 per cent).
More than half of people surveyed also supported increasing tax on alcohol, while 68 per cent of people supported a ban on alcohol advertising on TV before 8.30pm.
Robin Room, the director of the Centre for Alcohol Policy and Research, said there had been a steady growth in concern about the role of alcohol in social and health problems. He said studies consistently pointed to alcohol as one of the most harmful substances.
"This doesn't mean, in my opinion, that it should be banned," he said. "But it does mean that alcohol should be taken seriously."
A majority of Australians believe the alcohol industry targets people under the age of 18 and has too much influence with governments.
The poll also found 72 per cent of Australians believe political parties should not be able to receive donations from the alcohol industry.
"Community perceptions of the alcohol industry are poor, suggesting the community is deeply sceptical about the industry's motivations and business tactics," the poll said.
Professor Room said the findings on attitudes to policy suggested Australian governments were not in step with voters.
"The main reason that governments do not move on these issues, despite popular support for them, seems to be the influence of the alcohol industry," he said.
An alcohol industry lobby group attacked the poll as "sensationalist".
"[A]nti-alcohol activist group FARE should be ignored as unrepresentative of how Australians use alcohol beverages," Alcohol Beverages Australia executive director Fergus Taylor said.
The FARE poll found 92 per cent of Australians believe alcohol is linked to family and domestic violence.
"This has been an issue which is hotly contested," Professor Room said. "Some have not wanted to talk about it because they think it offers the perpetrator an excuse, and people also worry that identifying alcohol as a factor will divert attention from other factors also involved."
Alcohol is estimated to be involved in up to half of partner violence in Australia, although these figures may under-represent the full extent of alcohol-related domestic violence.
The chief executive of FARE, Michael Thorn, said: "This is a pretty simple equation: increase the availability of alcohol and you will increase the problems."
"Until we accept that first principle that alcohol increases the level of family violence and its severity, well, we're really not tackling the issue."
Mr Thorn said restrictions on access to alcohol introduced in the Northern Territory, as part of the controversial NT Intervention, had led to a reduction of family violence.
"Strong measures to reduce the supply of alcohol work and we support those," he said.
