Howard urges holistic solution to petrol sniffing

Prime Minister John Howard says he is concerned by the growing incidence of petrol sniffing in remote Indigenous communities, but governments alone cannot solve the problem.

The Government says a coronial inquest in the Northern Territory community of Mutitjulu has highlighted the difficulties in addressing the problem.

A community development worker has been employed by the Federal Government to work on reducing the number of people sniffing petrol in Mutitjulu, and federal subsidies for non-sniffable fuels have also been increased.

But the Government says reducing the supply of sniffable petrol is not an answer in itself.

Prime Minister John Howard says a holistic approach needs to be developed with state and territory governments.

"It's a difficult problem, it's a result of many reasons and a lot of social disfunction," he said.

"Ultimately the solution to the problem is in the hands of the communities, as much as it is in the hands of governments."

Non-sniffable fuel

Greens Senator Bob Brown wants the Federal Government to ban sniffable petrol across central Australia, including in the major towns like Alice Springs.

Senator Brown says a government subsidy to ensure people were not able to access sniffable petrol would be a major step forward.

"When you look at the petrol excise of some $13 billion a year the Government's getting and GST of more than $300 million a year on top of that, surely $8 or $10 million to get rid of sniffable petrol from central Australia is not a hard ask of this Government," he said.

Other drugs

Meanwhile, an Indigenous conference in Canberra has been told alcohol and tobacco remain the most commonly abused drugs in Aboriginal communities, despite the recent media attention on petrol sniffing.

The Australia National University's Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research is hosting the conference and presenting the latest socio-economic data for the Indigenous population.

Tanya Chikritzhs, from the National Drug Research Institute, has told the conference a higher proportion of Indigenous Australians drink alcohol at risk levels.

She also says they are twice as likely to die from alcohol-related causes.

"In the past there's been a lot of focus on illicit drugs because they make a much more sexy headline than alcohol, which is a legal drug," she said.

"But I think it's also probably the same with respect to petrol sniffing.

"But the winds of change are blowing and I think even at the political level there is increased focus on alcohol and tobacco as being major contributors to harm."

Ms Chikritzhs says while petrol is abused heavily in some communities, its use in the total Indigenous population is low and alcohol abuse is more common.

"The rate of alcohol attributable death among Indigenous people is more than twice as great than the rate for the general population," she said.

"It certainly hasn't improved in recent years, it's maintained a very steady level between 2.4 and 2.7 times greater than for the non-Indigenous population."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 12 August 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
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Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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