|
 
AUSTRALIA
Govt must roll out 'non-sniffable' fuel
The federal government must identify and overcome
barriers to a blanket roll out of non-sniffable fuel across central
Australia, a Senate committee has found. It must also look at ways to
boost production of the non-sniffable fuel OPAL to ensure there are
adequate supplies for communities crippled by the scourge of petrol
sniffing. In its report, the committee looking into the sniffing crisis
in remote indigenous communities said greater access to OPAL was an
essential weapon to fight the killer habit.
The government must identify and combat barriers "that
prevent a complete roll out of Opal throughout the central Australian
region", it said. It must also roll out the fuel to key townships and
roadhouses that surround communities already supplied with Opal, to make
it harder for addicts to get access to sniffable fuels. The committee,
led by Labor, acknowledges the government's $20 million commitment over
four years to subsidise Opal, but said it did not go far enough.
The findings are a win for Northern Territory Coroner
Greg Cavanagh, who called in October last year for the universal
introduction of Opal across central Australia. Mr Cavanagh looked into
the deaths of three young sniffers from the remote Mutitjulu community,
one of several where sniffing has become an epidemic.
The inquest was told there were an estimated 600
petrol sniffers across the region and some 60 had died from sniffing in
the NT in a seven-year period. In handing down his findings, Mr Cavanagh
said the government must support a universal roll-out of Opal, adding
that he could not disagree with the use of the word "pathetic" to
describe government efforts to deal with the sniffing crisis. Estimates
presented to the inquest suggest the government is up for an $8 million
a year bill to roll out Opal.
But the committee said the government would save money
in the long-run, given the vast costs of looking after brain-damaged
sniffers. Mr Cavanagh's inquest was told that the cost to the health
system of looking after each brain-damaged sniffer was about $200,000
every year. Petrol sniffing had been a problem for 20 years and the
subject of a series of reports, inquiries and inquests which all made
similar recommendations, the Senate committee said, yet the problem
persisted.
Between 1981 and 1991, 60 Aboriginal men and three
women had died from petrol sniffing and the deaths had continued over
the past 15 years. "The health impacts include chronic disability and
the social impacts include violence, crime and the breakdown of
community structures," the committee said. "Tragically, young indigenous
people are dying as a result of petrol sniffing."
Among 23 sweeping recommendations, the committee
called for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner to be given the power and funding to review the take-up of
the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendations
every 12 months.
The royal commission wound up in 1990 and handed down
its final report with 339 recommendations the following year. They
included suggestions for a range of youth and mental health programs and
strategies aimed at curbing petrol sniffing. Implicit in the Senate
committee's report was an acknowledgment that little had been done to
follow through on these and a range of coronial inquiry recommendations.
"Evidence received by the committee constantly suggested the same or
similar solutions as those which had already been proposed, but not
effectively implemented," it said.
The royal commission advice should be a standard item
on the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agenda, it said.
Although there were no short-term solutions, there was hope petrol
sniffing could be stamped out. Central Australia Papunya Council
chairman Lance Macdonald said all was not lost. "When you burn a tree it
always grows back," he told reporters in Canberra. "We don't think we're
going to fail." His community had more than 100 petrol sniffers late
last year. With the introduction of OPAL fuel, it now boasts no users.
The Senate committee also said deaths and illness
stemming from petrol sniffing needed to be better documented. Safe
houses for both sniffers and those they put at risk through volatile and
violent behaviour should be established, it said. A police presence in
all indigenous communities, boosting night patrols, community-based
programs, and the construction of rehabilitation centres should also be
priorities. Finally, the committee suggested state and federal
governments look at preventing contractors bringing in regular unleaded
petrol to some communities. BP manufactures Opal fuel, which has only
five per cent of the aromatics which give sniffers their high, rather
than the 25 per cent in standard unleaded petrol.
20 June 2006
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Govt-must-roll-out-nonsniffable-fuel/2006/06/20/1150701558247.html
home
/
Previous viewpoint |