An interesting article, Graham. And it got me wondering if it might not be cheaper all round to subsidise the blanket conversion of community vehicles to Gas. My understanding is that the small size of the anti-sniff petrol will mean that it will always remain a very costly option whereas Gas conversion will generally pay for itself in lower fuel costs anyway.

Once a tank and piping has been put into one car it will generally be easy to take it out and install in another one. The knowledge of how to do these conversions might be a very useful skill to acquire and spread through the communities. The end result will be a major reduction in the amount of available petrol and a big increase in the inconvenience associated with geting hold of it.

I don't know enough to do a proper costing on a community basis but you might. Worth looking at?

The way to overcome petrol sniffing, boozing and other drug addictions is to move aborigines out of camps and into the real world. OK, these things occur in wider society too; but at least young aborigines would have the chance of a useful life, education and treatment not available to them in camps and a separate way of living which has no place in a civilized country.

Ask aboriginal women what they think about it all. They seem to be the ones with all the sense, probably because they suffer most from the excesses and brutality engendered by these disgraceful camps politely called ‘settlements’.

Leigh has a great point, the welfare state must be abollished, and re-introduce human self relliance, creating inter-generational welfare socialist dependency is like a Heroin addiction, hard to shake off, if the problem was never allowed to perpetuate in the first instance then there would be perhaps a higher strike rate of intergration, instead of missery, but there is the answer, Missery industy, Tax payer funded useless idiots, where the funds could have been spent in educating and transforming Aboriginals into productive members of an open society, a great many would agree, but the Elites and the excessive welfare recipients(Heads of Departments) ripping them and us off, would be the loosers, that's why nothing is done, but promoting the dependency on the State.Someone needs to grow a spine.

An excellent article, Graham, and a relevant, sensible comment from Perseus. The other two comments veer off into generalisations and woolly plans for global fixes.
I'm with Graham on seeing and implementing small, achievable, immediate improvements. The problems that lead to sniffing (and alcoholism and violence and disease and all the others) are intractable. They will take a long time to solve, and another generation could succumb to shiffing while we waited for the global solution.
Sure, sniffing is a symptom but it's also a real problem in its own right and if we fix it we've achieved something

It is about 2000 dollars to convert a car to Gas, The most problematic would be keeping supply and availability for the conversion Kit's and Gas supply , re-fueling points, finacially not viable for private enterprise yet, but a reasonable venture for the near future.

Thank you Graham. What a well thought out, well written and pragmatic article. I think Perseus might be onto something.

Cheers
Kay

If people can't control themselves with one substance,then they can't control themselves with anything. If they don't use petrol then they'll use something else

Hi Perseus

Thanks for your thoughtful contribution. I will certainly run this past the technical types who have been helping me with background for these pieces.

My suspicion is that many of the rust-buckets around the communities are not worth this kind of investment. However, I take your point that it's possible to transfer the equipment from one vehicle to another.

I'll find out more about it.

regards

Graham Ring

While gas conversion is a good idea there are two problems.

One there is a drastic shortage of qualified operators confronting an overwhelming demand for conversions in the wider community. Current waiting lists are 6 - 18 months for conversions in most capital cities. I've been thinking that we need to lobby State Governments to increase the training programs for operators. But even so, the kits are in short supply, and training takes time. And I'm just talking about the braoder community generally

Two, you have to get LPG fueling facilities into the remote communities . That means pressurized tanks costing $100,000's each and supplier chains etc. The cost of this infrastructure would far outstrip the cost of introducing Opal.

Please don't get me wrong Opal is a short term fix, gas conversion makes good long term sense. But consider that diesel(unsniffable) is already in widespread use in the bush. The point about Opal is that it is a form of petrol, and the presence of diesel hasn't limited the demand for petrol. Opal is a way of making petrol safer.

Anyone who has witnessed first hand the terrible devastation that sniffing causes to individuals, families and communities would not hesitate to say that $10m is cheap compared to the current cost in misery and damage

Every day we delay in helping people in need we have to mark as a failure. The government intends to spend $20 million on advertising how it wants to reduce the power of unions to look after employees' interests - before the bill is enacted! How can we push the government to spend half this amount - as Graham recommends - on caring for some very vulnerable citizens? And children, for heaven's sake! Isn't this supposed to be the family friendly government?

But first consult the women of the affected communities, as has been suggested. They will know what is best. Then, all outsiders must defer to their wishes, if any good is too be achieved.

Ya know, Kyangadack, you may have identified a field for all this training money that might actually lead to some long term sustainable jobs that address a real skills shortage in the wider community. It looks like jobs in Gas conversion will be with us for a while. Once done, cars can also use compressed natural gas with minor changes. Is it a hurdle or a stepping stone?