Comments on: Real Action in the wrong direction?

By: Ian Sharp

Ian Sharp — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 05:25:29 +0000

Hal Duell’s last post is completely irrelevant … and very irreverent too. A good laugh, have a look.

By: Hal Duell

Hal Duell — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:03:27 +0000

I can’t resist adding the following to the comment mix on how to get going in the wrong direction.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=510_1344196881

By: Ian Sharp

Ian Sharp — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:35:23 +0000

Well said, Hal Duell. A big win today. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Big Tobacco.

By: Hal Duell

Hal Duell — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:44:30 +0000

Remember when Big Tobacco seemed untouchable?
Well, plain packaging was upheld by the High Court today.
I say beware Big Alcohol.
You, too, are reachable.
Lead the way, or be told.
What’s it gonna be?

By: Michael Thorn

Michael Thorn — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 05:15:24 +0000

Thanks Russell for posting a link to our petition to encourage the Government to adopt mandatory warning labels for alcohol. Alcohol warning labels are just one piece of the puzzle in addressing alcohol-related harms. My organisation, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) is also working on policies that focus on the way that alcohol is priced, marketed and made available. This means increasing the price of the cheapest alcohol products, preventing prolific and harmful marketing practices, and reducing the massive oversupply of alcohol.
It is naive to simply state that addressing alcohol misuse is solely the responsibility of the drinker. Our research into alcohol’s harm to others clearly demonstrates that alcohol misuse affects more than just the individual drinker, it also impacts on families and friends, employers and the general community. If the imperative to act and make hard decisions about the harms that alcohol makes to the drinker, then surely the harms made to those around the drinker are a greater motivation for reform.
Michael Thorn
Chief Executive
Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education

By: Hal Duell

Hal Duell — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:18:54 +0000

I can’t comment on a floor price, but others certainly have a lot to say, both pro and con.
Volumetric taxation means taxing the alcohol in alcohol. Seems to be a no-brainer to me. If the price goes up, the price goes up. Or lower the tax.
But labeling with a suitably graphic warning regarding the risk of drinking while pregnant, especially in the first trimester, is without doubt a no-brainer. Make it as ugly and as scary as the tobacco attack ads. Foetal alcohol damage is forever.
I’ll repeat that – foetal alcohol damage is forever!

By: Janet Brown

Janet Brown — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:22:38 +0000

Terry Mills and the CL party policy is based on fact not ideology that platform is the one you stand on. The Territory needs strong leadership and ministers that allow each individual take responsibility for their behavior. It is not up to governments to take that role. We have rules and laws for persons to know what behavior is acceptable or not. I find soap box preachers the greatest evil to everyday life for people so step off or down. You have been up there so long you have lost sight that not everyone has the right to oppose your ideologies.

By: Steve Brown

Steve Brown — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:16:24 +0000

Yeh, Editor, another load of one sided garbage from this bloke who has a complete inability to see the whole picture “Living with Alcohol”.
Mankind has [used alcohol] for thousands of years. When alcohol is not abused, not overused, by purchasers of all colours as is the case with 95% of purchases made, then it is a perfectly healthy social relaxant that eases the day, many of its stresses, for many well adjusted healthy, long living, hard working people who like a little help winding down at the end of the day.
In this role it serves, fills, a big part in helping to maintain community mental health. Alcohol also has a wonderful culture of its own, built around wines, brewing, distilling, wine bars, beer halls, pubs, restaurants, vineyards. It is collecting and so much more that broadens and enriches many lives. It is a massive employer providing our community alone with hundreds of jobs. It also provides the community with endless hours of life enriching enjoyment and just plain “fun” as a social stimulant. Sure, there are those who sometimes overindulge – more fool them. Lessons are usually learnt, prices paid, then of course there are those who form an addiction, just like people do with cigarettes, poker machines, chocolate, MacDonald’s and other fast foods. But do we stop the whole community eating because of the overindulgence of a few? I don’t think so!
Our role is to assist those who need it to make some adjustments, take some responsibility, get some health care. That is our community responsibility. Not to join the ranks of Mr Guy’s Loopy Left Wowser Brigade that would remove all joy from life and leave the rest of us as miserable, frightened, misguided, followers of zealot propaganda that reflects more a failure to cope than anything in the real world.
This ongoing campaign around floor pricing is just plain “bullshit”! It wont help alcoholics, they’ll get their booze one way or another. What it will do is make life just a little bit harder, just a little bit tougher, for honest hard-working struggling families and our senior citizens. It will help create for many what Mr Guy, and the wowser brigade really want for the world, for it to be as miserable as themselves! And the drunks? They’ll just carry on regardless! This article in all truth is just another blatant bit of Loopy Left Anti CLP propaganda, not even thinly disguised as “comment”! In closing and on a more appropriate religiously worded request for Mr Guy “for Gods sake give it a rest”!