Pass Out Drinking Game

Steve Irons is a Not so Liberal MP who lost two sisters through the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. He mentioned them as reasons why he's seeking a ban on a board game that he says encourages dangerous drinking.

Sabra Lane interviewed Steve Irons on ABC local radio

Sabra Lane: Parliamentary rookie MP says he's no wowser, that he enjoys a beer...BUT...says it's time to end Australia's binge drinking culture.

Late yesterday Mr Irons told Parliament he couldn't understand why a board game called Pass-Out is sold here without any classification.

Steve Irons: I will argue today that the advertising of the game Pass-Out should be stopped and that we must consider whether this is a game that is appropriate for sale in Australia.

Sabra Lane: A Perth man who received a flyer in his local newspaper advertising two drinking games alongside children's board games wrote to the MP suggesting it was inappropriate. Mr Irons agrees.

Steve Irons: It says on the website that it's not about alcohol and it's not recommended for people under 18. So if it's not alcohol it wouldn't matter if it was for people under 18. But I can't think of any other liquids or fluids that we can drink safely other than alcohol that would make us pass out.

So if that's the achievement of the game I just think that, you know, in a society now that's trying to reduce binge drinking, here we have companies still selling games that encourage drinking to the extent that we pass out, which is just crazy.

Sabra Lane: Mr Irons has asked the Classification Board to ban the game and he's challenged the Government to restrict it from advertising.

Steve Irons is a Not so Liberal MP who lost two sisters through the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. He mentioned them as reasons why he was seeking a ban on a board game that he says encourages dangerous drinking.

Irons told Parliament he couldn't understand why a board game called Pass-Out is sold here without any classification.

And so he got Pass-Out submitted to the censors.

The result is that it was rated as category 1 meaning that it is banned from sale in Queensland and Aboriginal areas of Northern Territories. It can be sold to over 18s in any shops in the rest of the country as long as it is sealed and labelled as category 1.