Alice Springs to miss out on unsniffable petrol

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has warned that rolling out unsniffable petrol across central Australia will not stop hard-core addicts from getting a destructive fix.

Mr Abbott says the Government will not replace unleaded petrol in Alice Springs with Opal because that would not stop sniffers.

"If people want to engage in self-destructive behaviour and they want to sniff petrol, short of having unsniffable petrol everywhere in Australia they're going to be able to get it, if they try hard enough," he said.

He says the decision may result in more petrol sniffers in Alice Springs.

"The thing is that there are no simple answers to this, and often you do a good thing for one person and that can translate into a bad thing for another person," he said.

Mr Abbott says communities should follow Indigenous leader Noel Pearson's position and re-establish intolerance for self-destructive behaviour.

Mr Abbott is in Darwin to launch a kit intended to shock potential sniffers out of picking up the habit.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/petrol.html
Pubdate: Fri, 23 September 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
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Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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