The author is wondering why these laws are in place, easily, get a haircut and join the police force. I think you will find out quite quickly the difference between theory and practice.

"If governments were really concerned with our health..."

Well now you've disproved that premise, perhaps you should consider a different theory of government; one with more explaining power?

You might find a coincidence between those with an interest in receiving income, power or prestige from government, and the expansion and activities of government? That would explain both sets of facts, wouldn't it? It also has the advantage of simplicity; and the bleeding obvious. You never know, one day you might give up altogether the fictitious superstition in representative government.

Look To the Future.
It is time to Resist Oppose and to Reject the Acceptance and the Expansion of the Destructive Alcohol Culture that has developed amongst our People. This Culture with it's False Values has already made a Permanent and Adverse Impact on the younger generations of our children. For the sake of our great, great, great grandchildren we must make a stand. And to recognize the entrenched "Aboriginal Victim Industry" (AVI) as a "Major Contributing Factor" to the present situation. The Victim Industry are those employed, whom continue to Foster and to Assist this circle of dependency and irresponsibility, to maintain employment credibility. To create access to further funding, to Further Encourage and to Perpetuate, in their Ignorance, the Victim Status and Mentality of Aboriginal and Islander People and a Culture and Values that is Disastrous to the Aboriginal People and Devastating to the Aboriginal Cause in this Country.
(Arthur Bell c. 9/99/)

This is all very simple

Why should people who can handle alcohol and drink in moderation be bothered by the self-indulgent retards who choose not handle their alcohol by drinking to excess?

Why should I, as a (very) modest drinker, have my quiet enjoyment of a common public space (the street), be disturbed, threatened or outraged by some vomit spewing drunk, urinating against the wheel of my car?

The answer – I should not.

Those who cannot handle the amount of alcohol or drugs they consume remain accountable for their actions but

they do not deserve access to the resources of public medical facilities, designed and funded by the taxes I pay for real emergencies rather than self-inflicted ones.

what they do deserve is to be left, in a cold gaol cell, laying in their own spew and bodily secretions, safely away from real people, until they (or maybe phone a friend) can pay a hefty fine before crawling back to whatever stone they creeped out from under in the first place.

I know one idea popular among law enforcement is a return to public humiliation penalties – maybe public stocks or pillory, since so many whoosies seems to think birching is inhuman.

Or maybe something like the “tent-prison” set up in USA (http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/), where the standard uniform is a pretty pink colour and coffee, meat and airconditioning are not options.

I think I am with the forces of law enforcement on that one and the tent-prison.

"The disgraceful fact is that Indigenous Australians are imprisoned at a rate higher than Blacks under apartheid in South Africa." Well I guess one way to lower the indigenous imprisonment rate in Australia is to introduce apartheid. No doubt that move would be supported by Australian indigenous bodies.

I live next door to a 'walkthrough' - in reality, an alleyway - with a liquor store less than a kilometre up the alley and another less than a kilometre in the other direction. Come pension day, the steady stream of people carrying cartoons of booze in every direction is a sight that must be seen to be believed. I will note, as well, given that the author brought race into the discussion, that the procession is exclusively aboriginal. Maybe the white drinkers are also drink drivers, or maybe the white people in my neighbourhood simply do not drink as much. They certainly don't seem to get drunk and roam the streets on a regular basis.

At the end of pension day or, more accurately, at 3am the morning after pension day, the alley is already strewn with smashed glass and empty cans. Twice in the last six months, I have had my fence smashed and endured a night of terror as palings are bashed against my security screens while drunkards shout abuse at my house. I have no problem with drunks staying at home or at a mate's place. People can drink as much as they want - that's not my problem. But when someone else's public drunkenness means that walking down the footpath or across my front lawn in a pair of thongs is unsafe, then I am in full support of laws prohibiting public drunkenness. It has been illegal in Queensland for over a century - perhaps a bit of enforcement wouldn't go astray.