| Alcohol a bigger problem than ice, says Jeff Kennett |
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has questioned what Tony Abbott's ice taskforce will achieve and appealed for "courageous" leadership on the bigger problem of alcohol.
Mr Kennett has called for a total ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorships, saying the key to tackling the ice epidemic is education.
His stand was endorsed by the president of the Australia Drug Law Reform Foundation, Alex Wodak, who said he found it hard to take the setting up of the ice taskforce seriously.
"It's hard to not take the view that he [Mr Abbott] is a politician desperately fighting for his political survival, whose thought bubble for the day is, 'Look over here at this shiny thing I've just done'," Dr Wodak said.
As Mr Abbott announced the taskforce on Wednesday, Mr Kennett took to social media to brand alcohol the "biggest mind-changing drug" and contributor to road deaths, "lethal king hits" and domestic violence.
Mr Abbott has appointed former Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay to head a taskforce to advise on tackling the "dreadful scourge" of ice, or crystal methylamphetamine.
The taskforce will provide an interim report by the middle of the year and has been backed by the federal opposition and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
In a radio interview, Mr Abbott suggested the former Labor government had not done enough to tackle ice. "Certainly in 2007, the Howard government, in which I was the health minister, was very concerned about ice," he said. "You might remember we started running a national public health campaign with pretty graphic television advertising.
"I don't think, at least in terms of public awareness, there has been anything much done over the intervening period."
Earlier, Mr Abbott told reporters that, as a citizen and as a parent, he was "appalled at what is happening on our streets and in our homes".
"Ice is far more addictive than any other illicit drug," he said. "It does far more damage than any other illicit drug. The propensity for violence, the propensity to subsequent very serious mental illness, the propensity to disfigurement which ice produces means that this is a drug epidemic way beyond anything that we have seen before now."
Mr Lay said nothing would be off the table as the taskforce looked for answers. "I don't think government and I don't think law enforcement have got the answers," he said. "We need to go to the community, understand their concerns, listen to their views and I suspect that we'll find a way through this."
While Mr Kennett stressed that he was not opposed to the taskforce, he told Fairfax Media he was not sure what it would achieve. "I'll be guided by the experts, but I am worried that, while we keep fiddling, the situation gets worse," he said.
"I think the time has come when governments should have the courage, and the media should have the courage, to recognise that alcohol is a lot more serious product in our society than cigarettes and heroin or cocaine and even ice, and be proactive about it – do something about it."
Dr Wodak said Mr Kennett was absolutely right about alcohol being the bigger problem and cited several reasons for his scepticism about the taskforce. He questioned the wisdom of "picking out one drug from the whole smorgasbord of drugs" and said one of the government's early acts was to defund the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia "for no apparent reason",
Mr Kennett made the call for a ban on alcohol advertising in a column in the Herald Sun on Wednesday. While he had received a positive response on social media, he told Fairfax Media he doubted whether he would be supported by political leaders.
"I haven't spoken to anyone politically," he said. "There will be very few to put their hands up because they're not prepared to bite the bullet, in the same way that the media is not prepared to bite the bullet."
But he said that if it was good enough to ban advertising and sponsorships by tobacco companies, "then surely it is good enough for alcohol, which is a much more dangerous product".
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