Health campaign groups in Australia launched on Friday the independent Alcohol Advertising Review Board. The main task of the new board would be to name and shame alcohol firms with advertising campaigns that violate international alcohol advertising regulations.

However, the board lacks the power to impose penalties or order certain adverts from being broadcast or published.

A group of 120 community leaders such as school principals, lawyers, religious leaders and health experts will be part of the board that will act on community complaints against alcohol advertising. The board will use advertising codes in New Zealand, UK and Canada as its international benchmarks.

The chair of the board is Professor Fiona Stanley, a Western Australia children health advocate. It was set up by the initiative of the Cancer Council WA and the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth.

Terry Sleving, director of education and research of Cancer Council WA, said the board was created because the industry-based Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code was not sufficient, making it necessary to have an independent review body since the code does not cover all forms of advertising or advertisers. The code also does not address issues such as advert placements and lacks power to penalise advertisers that do not follow the code, Mr Slevin pointed out.

"I'd like to think that any responsible company, if they're subject to this kind of scrutiny and there were strong rules that people found they weren't abiding by then they would respond by scrapping the campaign," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Mr Slevin.

"But failing that and if the industry continues to practice in a way we believe is certainly out of control, the next step is for us to argue with the government that there should be more regulation applied to them that has some real teeth," he added.

Due to WA being the 10th highest drinker of alcohol globally based on a study by the World Health Organisation with the average WA consuming in 2010 70 per cent more than the recommended maximum of two standard drinks daily, the state had to contend with an alcohol-related health bill between $1.5 billion and $5 billion, the State Parliament's Education and Health Committee said.

To address this problem, the committee recommended a minimum price of on alcohol, an increase in the drinking age to 21 and a 10-fold hike in fines for serving drunk people.

Ms Stanley said WA children in particular need protection for alcohol promotion and advertising which are prevalent in sports, on billboards, buses and bus shelters as part of the alcohol industry's massive advertising campaign.

"If the worst excesses are publicised, I think that will generate change in the industry," News 9 quoted McCusker Centre Director Mike Daube.