Author: Wan Kerr

A comprehensive report analysing the behaviours of thousands of Australian drinkers was released recently by the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (NDLERF), at the 6th Australasian Drug and Alcohol Strategy Conference in Sydney.

In one of many findings, Patron Offending and Intoxication in Night-Time Entertainment Districts (POINTED) reveals that across Australia after 1am, almost a third of the 6500 patrons tested had a blood alcohol reading of above 0.1% with the highest averages in Geelong and Perth.

The massive project saw a research team – led by Associate Professor Peter Miller from Deakin University – interview almost 7000 patrons between November 2011 to June 2012, and conducted almost 900 hours of observation of patrons in pubs and clubs.

Entertainment precincts surveyed included King Street and Prahran in Melbourne, Geelong in regional Victoria, Northbridge in Perth, Kings Cross and Darling Harbour in Sydney and Wollongong in regional NSW.

Professor Miller said: “The report provides a detailed insight into the motivations, and drinking behaviours of thousands of mostly young Australians who were out for a night on the town.”

The surveys were conducted in bars, boutique hotels, beer barns and clubs, with around 6500 patrons agreeing to blood alcohol content (BAC) tests.

Patrons were interviewed about their night, alcohol choices, whether they pre-drank before leaving home, and whether they’d witnessed or had been involved in aggressive or disorderly behavior. They were also asked about their plans for the rest of night including getting home.

An average of 65% reported pre-drinking (or pre-loading) before to going out. In Geelong and Perth that level was 81% and 80% respectively. Surveys indicated the main reason to pre-load was to save money. Consuming five or six drinks before going to the pub indicated a higher risk of heavy alcohol consumption and risky behaviour, such as drink driving.

Likewise the study showed widespread use of high energy drinks- either in an alcohol mix or separate – allowing patrons to drink more, and leading to higher than average blood alcohol readings. Most users averaged 3 high energy drinks by 3 am.

The surveys also found that around one in four people are believed to have used drugs. This study was the first of its kind to use drug swabs to validate people own reports. It found between 1 and 2 people in every five had used drugs, but that one in four was the most likely average across the country. The main drugs admitted to were cannabis, amphetamines and ecstasy.

Chair of the NDLERF Board, NSW Police Detective Superintendent Tony Cooke, said that the findings added invaluable information for police and governments in dealing with offenders in night-time entertainment precincts.

“This survey follows on from the team’s previous work DANTE – Dealing with alcohol related harm and the night-time economy. This study is important as it reflects what patrons are saying and demonstrating and the messages are the same. Alcohol and levels of intoxication remains the significant driver of most harm in the night time economy. The later people drink, the higher are their levels of intoxication. The issue of pre-loading is again borne out as a significant factor in alcohol related harms.”

“This study also raises a number of concerns about the link between those consuming high energy drinks and levels of harm. Combining high energy drinks and late trading hours are also highlighted by this comprehensive report,” Superintendent Cooke said.

Some measures the authors recommend for further investigation include:

* alcohol companies pay for health warning TV advertisements directly after the screening of pro-alcohol ads * ceasing the sales of high energy drinks from 10pm
* the imposition of tighter trading hour restrictions ceasing the sale of alcohol in venues an hour before closing

* increasing the price of alcohol through taxation (preferably based on volume and increasing according to beverage strength) to include pre-packaged alcohol used for preloading, to allow for specific expenditure on measures that ameliorate harm,
* and the banning of two for one, and bulk discount alcohol deals

Organisations involved in POINTED were: Deakin University, Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre Melbourne, the Burnet Institute, National Drug Research Institute Curtin University, University of Western Sydney, and University of Wollongong.

The report and executive summary are available here: http://www.ndlerf.gov.au/

NDLERF publications are managed by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC).

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The National Toxics Network (NTN) and the Lock the Gate Alliance are calling on federal and state governments to take urgent action to protect the health of all communities living around coal seam gas (CSG) fields after the release of the Queensland Government’s report into the health of Tara residents.

Lock the Gate president, Drew Hutton, pointed to the report’s shortcomings.

“Despite the fact this was not a comprehensive health study it still found children living at Tara were exposed to numerous toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air, some at levels above health criteria,” Mr Hutton said.

The Queensland Government Health Report acknowledges that while it was ‘..unable to determine whether any of the health effects reported by the community are linked to exposure to Coal Seam Gas activities, it does provide some evidence that might associate some of the residents’ symptoms to exposures to airborne contaminants arising from CSG activities.’

“The CSG industry testing on which the Queensland Government’s Health report is largely based, is very limited and leaves many questions unanswered,” said Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, NTN’s CSG Advisor.

“There was no systematic approach to assessing the chemical pollutants. In most cases only one air sample was collected for each property, yet carcinogens like benzene and the neurotoxin toluene, were found in the air around Tara homes. We know from studies overseas that air monitoring needs to occur over months to ensure a true picture of air pollution from unconventional gas activities,” said Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith.

“The report repeats the unfounded statements that there were ‘few exceedances for individual chemicals’. There was no attempt to assess those cases where exceedances did occur; they are simply dismissed. There was no consideration or assessment of cumulative or aggregate impacts even when some residences recorded a number of air contaminants and vulnerable children were being exposed, said Dr Lloyd-Smith.

“The report concludes that there was ‘no evidence of contamination of concern’, yet for many of the chemicals assessed the level of detection used by the laboratories was well above the level set for the protection of health.”

“Of great concern was the detection of benzene at levels above health criteria. Benzene is a confirmed human carcinogen. Yet these results were dismissed in the report with the claim that ‘benzene was not a compound that is found in CSG and therefore cannot be attributed to CSG activities’” said Dr Lloyd-Smith.

Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection website states that “BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene) are found naturally in crude oil, coal and gas deposits and therefore they can be naturally present at low concentrations in groundwater near these deposits”.

“Of the 11 families and over 50 people reporting symptoms like headache, rashes, nausea and nosebleeds, only 15 people were seen in person and another two by telephone,” Drew Hutton said.

“The Report recognises the limitations of industry sampling for not even testing for toxic metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium (III and VI), lead, and inorganic mercury; the metals that are of ‘more relevance to public health considerations of soil contamination’.

“The Health Report and the documents on which it relies do not represent an acceptable investigation of the potential impacts of CSG activities on local residents and should not be used by either government or industry to claim a clean bill of health”.

“Instead the detection of such a wide range of VOCs in air should prompt an immediate independent, broad-spectrum, high-periodicity, long-term, monitoring program,” they concluded.

The Queensland Health Department Report can be found at http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/TabledPapers/2013/5413T2306.pdf

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“Keep Queensland Beautiful” is the new catchcry to stop Queensland’s three-year run as the most littered mainland state in Australia.

In a new initiative, Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland (KABQ) is rebranding itself to focus on the “chronic local litter problem”.

“We need to fix our bad littering behaviour in Queensland,” says Rick Burnett, CEO of KABQ, and creator of the new Keep Queensland Beautiful (KQB) “trading name”.

“We have a new state government, and in partnership with Keep Queensland Beautiful, we have a new commitment and goal.

“Let’s be the cleanest state – not the dirtiest.

“It’s so simple – if we all put our rubbish in a bin, we will keep Queensland beautiful.”

Mr Burnett also launched a new jingle and video which he was negotiating to have played at sporting venues, cinemas and as a community service announcement in local TV and radio airtime.

Sharing the joint announcement, the Minister of Environment and Heritage Protection, the Hon. Andrew Powell MP, said it was a bold decision for the iconic Keep Australia Beautiful organisation.

“The Newman government will be supporting the initiative by providing seed-funding for a new Keep Queensland Beautiful “litter prevention smart phone App”.

“We are in a new age of communication and data collection,” Minister Powell said.

“Keep Queensland Beautiful will develop a new phone app to allow public reporting of littering and data about litter hotspots.”

The Minister said the Newman Government was committed to helping form industry partnerships with Keep Queensland Beautiful to create more investment in a cleaner Queensland.

“It is a matter of pride that we keep our state clean and litter-free, and it’s in our hands to make it happen.”

Mr Burnett said: “We have the most beautiful natural landscapes, beaches, flora and fauna of all the states in Australia – yet we have the worst littering problem.”

(The National Litter Index – measuring litter item numbers and volumes at 983 sites across Australia – has found Queensland had the most littered items in the past three consecutive years.)

“It is lazy, ugly, and destructive – remember: Litter on land, kills at sea!” Burnett said.

“And cigarette butts, plastic bags and plastic bottles are the top killers.

“We have the world’s best-known, most iconic coral reef, brilliant islands and marine environments, yet so many of us are lazy and thoughtless about dropping our rubbish wherever we go.

“We need to lift our game Queenslander!”

Burnett said the KABQ board had decided to adopt a new name and logo to concentrate the litter and recycling messages locally, and to simplify the education and awareness process.

The new state government recently pledged its support, approving an “Everyone’s Environment” grant of $55,000 for the expansion of the KABQ “Adopt a Road” program in 2013 – where community groups voluntarily adopt local roads, parks and other public spaces, and pledge to keep them litter-free.

There are currently 40 groups operating and Keep Queensland Beautiful aims to add another 20 groups this calendar year.

Reducing litter can save huge amounts of public money spent by the state and local governments in cleaning costs. Brisbane City Council alone spent more than $8-milion on litter management last financial year.

The National Packaging Covenant Industry Association (NPCIA) is also partnering KABQ over the next 3 years to expand Queensland’s Tidy Towns and Clean Beaches awards programs, and help spread litter prevention and recycling messages in Queensland schools.

Burnett said the last government funded anti-litter “Do the Right Thing” media campaign was in the 1990s.

“That means a whole generation of young people has never heard an anti-litter message,” Burnett said. “Now they are driving their first cars and think nothing of throwing food or drink packaging onto the roads.

“We need more signs, more education, and stronger penalties.”

Burnett said littering and illegal dumping penalties and fines did exist, but with police and council resources stretched, the public needed to be more involved.

“Dob in a Litterer,” Burnett said. “There are links on the Keep Queensland Beautiful website to report offenders.”

This year Keep Queensland Beautiful has also been granted “environmental charity status” so donations to help its cause are now tax deductable.

Individuals, clubs and corporations can donate or join the organisation by visiting the Keep Queensland Beautiful website www.keepqueenslandbeautiful.org.au

“Clean Queensland? Dirty Queensland? You choose”.

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Registration is open for Australia’s biggest breast cancer research event, the annual Women in Super Mother’s Day Classic. Every Mother’s Day for the past 15 years, Australians have walked or run to fund research and honour those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

More than a quarter of a million Australians have participated in past Mother’s Day Classic events, and you can too this year by registering at www.mothersdayclassic.com.au

At the 2012 Mother’s Day Classic more than 125,000 participants in 53 locations around the nation raised a record $4 million, bringing the overall total raised to $14.8 million.

This makes the Mother’s Day Classic Australia’s largest funder of National Breast Cancer Foundation’s research programs. Since Women in Super initiated the event in 1998, 5 year survival rates for women diagnosed with breast cancer have been increasing, and now stand at 89% of those diagnosed.

ME Bank contributed significantly to the 2012 event as major sponsor, a position it will hold again in 2013.

The 16th annual event, on Sunday 12 May 2013, is open to all ages and fitness levels and participants range from large teams brightly and creatively dressed in pink costumes, through to inter-generational family groups and running enthusiasts.

The more funds we raise, the faster a cure can be found

Mother’s Day Classic National Chair, Louise Davidson, said there was a wonderful community feel to each event, allowing people to show support for those who have been touched by the disease, as well as to support vital research.

“Make Mother’s Day a memorable and meaningful day by registering now. Anyone who has experienced a Mother’s Day Classic event knows what a special vibe there is to the morning,” Ms Davidson said.

“Whether you walk, run, cheer, fundraise or volunteer, by taking part you’re helping to fund essential research – the more funds we raise, the faster a cure can be found.”

Just registering for the event helps fund new research into prevention, detection, treatment and cure – and every extra dollar raised beyond registration helps even more. There are great prizes for top fundraisers in each state.

“By setting up an online fundraising page and asking friends, family and colleagues to sponsor your walk or run, you will help make a bigger investment of funds for future generations of women with breast cancer,” Ms Davidson said.

To register or for more information go to www.mothersdayclassic.com.au

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The entire North Island of New Zealand has been declared a drought zone, after the summer months saw only one third to a half of normal rainfall. The drought is the worst to hit the country in 70 years.

Primary Industries Minister in the National Party-led government, Nathan Guy, made the announcement on March 15, saying it was recognition that “farmers across the North Island are facing extremely difficult conditions”. Drought had already been declared in February in Northland, followed earlier this month by South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay. Farmers on the West Coast last week became the first on the South Island to ask for drought assistance.

The government’s drought declaration offers farmers a meagre package of financial assistance, including more flexibility in tax payments, provisions for those in extreme hardship to get the equivalent of an unemployment benefit, and making some funds available to Rural Trusts to help stressed residents. Most farmers deride the measures, saying they only help those that are all but destitute.

Farmers from the Manawatu and Rangitikei hill country complained that the formal announcement took too long to come. Manawatu/Rangitikei meat and fibre chairman Fraser Gordon, who has been farming since the 1970s, told the Manawatu Standard that the dry conditions were the worst in his lifetime: “We should have been called three weeks ago. To me, it’s the biggest drought since 1947.”

Extreme global weather events are increasing in frequency around the world. Australia’s summer saw a record-breaking heatwave that lasted more than two weeks across many parts of the country. Temperatures went above 48°C. According to a report by the Australian government’s Climate Commission, global warming was directly linked to these events. The commission noted it was the hottest summer in more than a century of records, capped by the nation’s longest and most extreme heatwave. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), meeting in Hobart in January, also noted that it was part of a warming trend around the world.

In New Zealand, the dry conditions are having a dire effect on the country’s agricultural-dependent economy. It is the fifth-driest summer for North Canterbury since 1940, and access to river-fed irrigation for some farmers in the Oxford area was cut off a month ago. In Waipukurau, it effectively stopped raining last August, producing desert-like conditions. Rain in some areas over last weekend did not come near the 100mm needed to put an end to the drought and was hardly enough, according to the Domini on Post, to “settle the dust”.

The likely cost to the average dairy farmer in the rich Waikato pastoral region is $100,000 to $150,000 in income this season. Many farmers have been forced to sell off stock, at extremely unfavourable prices, because they cannot feed them. Others are struggling to cope as dams dry out, leaving farmers short of stock water, with some trucking in water each day to fill troughs. Some dairy farmers have moved to once-a-day milking of their cows, instead of two, with a 20 percent loss of production. Many will stop milking altogether next month.

Tararua farmer Garth Coleman told the Dominion Post: “It’s depressing looking at your paddocks, which are brown and have no grass, and your stock, wondering what exactly they’re eating.” Climate scientist Jim Salinger said that if consistent rain did not come before May the “damage will already be done” for winter.

The dairy industry is the country’s largest source of export revenue, valued at about $12 billion and comprising more than a third of the total international dairy trade. World milk prices are rising as a result of the drought. According to industry website GlobalDairyTrade, whole milk powder is now almost 50 percent more expensive than a month ago.

New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English said the cost of the drought is now headed toward $NZ2 billion. He refused to rule out that it could tip the fragile economy back into recession. English insisted, however, this would not derail the government’s intention of returning a budget surplus by 2014-15. This will likely be achieved by deeper government cuts. Treasury warned recently that shaving just 0.5 percent off economic growth for the next five years would see core government revenue cut by $7.9 billion, leading to higher debt. Speaking on Radio NZ on 11 March, English warned that taxpayer relief to farmers could well become “unsustainable” in future if droughts get worse.

Dairy NZ estimates that by the end of March, milk production for 2013 will have been reduced by 260 million litres. Prices for basic foodstuffs such as milk and meat are set to sharply rise. Urban areas have also suffered an impact, with water restrictions in place over most of the North Island. Water supply for the country’s capital city, Wellington, was described late last week as at “crisis” levels, with less than 20 days of water left. Almost all the available water in the region’s rivers has been exhausted, forcing the regional council to invoke emergency measures. A council spokesman predicted that without any significant rain in another three weeks “the cupboard will be bare”.

In response to a series of increasingly severe droughts in 2007, 2008 and 2010, governments have done little to prepare for future disasters. Data released last week by the government climate science agency NIWA showed that drought will become more intense and more frequent in the next 30 years. Climate scientists have warned it could it could mean the end of farming in New Zealand as it is currently known.

Victoria University scientist James Renwick told the Dominion Post that the risk of drought will increase by 10 percent by 2040, and will double in duration to more than two months per year. “Drought is likely to become the ‘new normal’ in some parts of eastern and northern New Zealand,” he concluded.

Republished from: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/21/nzdr-m21.html

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Premier Campbell Newman and his Transport Minister, Scott Emerson, have announced that Lord Mayor Graham Quirk must also sign off on the bus routes to be axed in Brisbane.

Councillor for the Gabba Ward Helen Abrahams has welcomed the move, saying: “This announcement aims to flush out the position of the Lord Mayor.”

” The Lord Mayor has talked vaguely in the Council chamber about many discussions and “doing certain things … to encourage people to get out there and to find out what these changes mean for them” and “continual representation on behalf of the people” but he has fallen short of condemning Premier Newman’s cuts to 25% of bus routes in Brisbane.”

Helen Abrahams says the Lord Mayor must now act and start a genuine consultation process on what bus services residents want for our Brisbane. “He should organise public meetings so people can have a say and extend the consultation period to three months,” says Helen.

“I will certainly be holding meetings with inner south residents if the Lord Mayor doesn’t,” said Helen Abrahams.

“Judging from the number of signatures on petitions being handed into my office, residents want to and deserve to have a meaningful say.”

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