Graham I found your article to be totally Bloody 'Propriate.

It is not Beyond Possibilities for the fed gov to actually do something worthwhile and humanitarian (for a complete change) by ensuring the distribution of Opal fuel, however I'm not going to hold my breath.

;-)

The more important issue is the price of petrol, it affects more than 3% of the population.
Taxing biodiesel and hampering the efforts of achieving cheaper and renewable fuel like ethanol really sucks.
Sniffing petrol? if we distribute Claytons, will that eliminate alcoholism? When the petrol is all opal, there is still solvents and paint, several hundred plant species, booze, drugs etc.
The problem is how out of it do you want to get.
And who is responsible for that.
the individual, not the big bad oppressive white male chauvanist left wing trendies and spannercrabs, the person who has the desire to imbibe the substance.

Graham

Thank you for another excellent article.

I don't have sufficient words to express the sadness I feel for young children who regard sniffing as the answer to their damaged lives. So many have frontal lobe knock off before they reach their teens. Bloody tragic.

The previous post is not worth a response. Correction. I am too angry to respond to its heartlessness.

Cheers
Kay

TASOVOR has it 100% correct.

1. The solution to sniffing is not going to come from the government. It is going to come from the sniffers, their friends and their families.

2. If you get rid of petrol they'll just sniff something else.

Usually when people rehash the noble savage myth like this they're just looking for attention. It's doubly sad that this guy is looking for the government to subsidise a multinational oil company with the same old lies.

Sad sad sad.

Graham,
A brilliantly written article! Thank you. I have just spent 6 months living and working with young people in the Western Desert. While it is unfortunate that there is a lack of understanding by the general population of Australia as to the reasons behind, and the solutions to the problem of petrol sniffing in our indigenous communities, that lack of understanding and empathy for victims of substance abuse is partly understandable. I do not condone that point of view or support it but I understand it because the situation is far beyond that which the unitiated can possibly understand. A total rollout of Opal fuel will certainly not solve the problem in it's entirety but it will go a good part of the way towards helping. However; what we really need to do is invest some time and money into assisting indigenous families and whole communities in making better choices. We need to get to the core of the problem and solve it that way, as we do with all substance abuse problems in Australia and in fact world wide. I say bring on the rollout of Opal while we work together with indigenous communities to empower them into making positive choices for their children.