Victorian opposition politician, Tim Smith, crashes car; blood test reveals 0.131. In his own time, but it takes about 25 hours before the booze is all gone.

It makes you wonder how pissed politicians who do imbibe are when they make some pretty awful decisions, particularly those in Victoria.

Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith has resigned from Victoriá's
shadow cabinet after crashing into a car and returning a 0.131
blood alcohol concentration - more than two times the legal
limit. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

The former shadow attorney general was fined and he had his
licence suspended for 12 months.

The outspoken member for Kew in Melbourne's east released a
statement that it was a "serious error of judgement" on his
part, He felt that after dinner with friends he felt that
he was under the legal limit to drive. It's a pity that
his friends were not able to insist on either driving him
home or calling a taxi for him.

There's a lesson in this behaviour for us all. Especially
for his mates for not calling it out.

cont'd ...

Parliament is a workplace that makes critical decisions, it
should be alcohol free. We would not let crane drivers have
alcohol on the job why should we let Members of Parliament
drink? There are serious decisions that are being made by
politicians. They should be made 100 per cent sober.

Perhaps in late night sessions they should have earlier
adjournment times?

Foxy,
I agree 101%, there’re should be breathalyser tests of all Members before they vote.

Is Mise
In pretty much every employment contract on the planet there is a clause referring to not be off your face on anything in the workplace. There are also clauses regarding workplace functions, again, don't get off your face.
Does this not apply to government? If not, why not?
Also, with the "curious" decisions being made I'd suggest drug, as well as alcohol testing should be implemented.

Must be VE Day, complete agreement as well!

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy has told Tim Smith not to contest next year's election.

Tim Smith has reportedly denied 'ever taking drugs'. Like most alcohol users, he denies the addictive qualities of alcohol, which is the most commonly used drug in Australia. It accounted for 53% of hospital emergency drug admissions in the year 2019-20. Most Australians are sucking on the stuff, with various degrees of harm to themselves and others.

All the Houses of Parliament and anywhere near should be alcohol free zones.

Alcoholic drinks are good for community morale and for purifying water.

The English gave rations of rum to it's royal navy sailors.

http://blacktot.com/the-story/2679/black-tot-days-around-the-world

The Egyptians fed beer to the workers that built the pyramids...

http://cairoscene.com/ArtsAndCulture/The-History-of-Beer-In-Ancient-Egypt

This one Egyptian myth-

Sekhmet’s bloodlust became insatiable. The lioness-headed goddess rampaged, ripping people's head’s off and drinking their blood like an American university sophomore chugging cheap beer. Ra, being the guilt-prone immortal lord of the universe that he was, saw the destruction he had wrought by sending Sekhmet and thought to himself 'I might have overreacted on this one a little bit.' He used a ton of blood-coloured beer to trick Sekhmet into getting wasted and falling asleep. In the morning when she woke up, she had become Hathor, cow-horned goddess of happiness, laughter, and feminine love. This proves that everybody needs to blow off some steam with a couple drinks every once in a while. Even murder-crazy, blood drinking ladies with lion heads.

Ancient Egyptians thought the story was so great that every year there was a Festival of Drunkenness at the Temple of Hathor. Different than the daily drinking they did or the social group drinking that surely existed, this festival cranked the dial up to 11. Festival goers would drink, and dance by torchlight until they eventually passed out. They would then be woken by drums and the party would start all over again. There is even talk that there might have been some serious hanky-panky involved too. References to ‘traveling through the marshes’ in ancient texts are believed to be a euphemism for knocking sandals together. Sex, I’m talking about sex. Graffiti depicting couples doing it has been found at the Temple of Hathor. Not all that surprising since Hathor was a goddess of love. All that sounds like just a normal Friday night to us, but for the ancients this was how they got closer to their gods.

Now with the dampening of the alcohol industry, one that has existed in this country for thousands of years-

So that’s where many of our politicians get their inspiration.

Huxley's Brave New World talks about using drugs to "settle" the population to make them docile and relaxed and less prone to troublemaking. Some see alcohol as filling this role in many cultures often by local cottage industry types- others such as Islam use religion perhaps to do the same.

It's been said that the Egyptians used "bread beer" rations to prevent insurrection due to the relatively huge number of workers required to build the pyramids.

In many cases moderate consumption of alcohol in a healthy context can be relatively helpful for the community and to dull the pain of life.

Smith, now getting out of politics completely, has described his addiction as a "terrible lapse of judgement". Just another one denying his problems with a dangerous drug.