8 April , Byron Shire EchoCommentSetting back the cause of reconciliationSVol APRIL , Drugs in the drivers seatBallina MP and shadow roads minister Don Page has welcomed plans by the NSW government to consider roadside drug testing. The test could involve submitting a sample of saliva for analysis. The Roads and Traffic Authority and NSW Police will monitor roadside trials to be carried out in Victoria. Apparently a drug test trial could begin in NSW by the end of the year. Drug use, particularly illegal and prescription drugs in conjunction with alcohol, is definitely a safety issue for road users. The introduction of drug testing will be a cultural issue for a north coast community with a good percentage of illicit drug use. According to Mr Page research done by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found that more than one in ten people aged - in the Lismore area have at some stage driven a vehicle while under the influence of cannabis. Drivers who use cannabis and drive shortly after are seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a drug free driver. To his credit Mr Page is also advocating education awareness programs to discourage drug driving and screening for prescription drugs as well as amphetamines and cannabis. His position is entirely consistent with his earlier comments and firm rejection of proposals to decriminalise marijuana. The great killer on our roads is alcohol but it would be disingenuous to think that cannabis is entirely innocent. The effect of prescription drugs such as antidepressants or sedatives also warrants investigation. Drug testing will be an invasion of privacy. Random breath testing is also an invasion of privacy but it is an invasion the community is prepared to wear in the interests of road safety. For the government to justify an added invasion, the scientific research must be thorough. How accurate will the tests be Will the detection of cannabis, for instance, be able to differentiate between recent use and residual amounts How will the authorities construct a scale, as with alcohol, which determines if the level of drugs found in the blood is beyond an acceptable threshold For users of cannabis, which is a common recreational drug on the north coast, how far will the consequences of the test go Will the same laws apply as with alcohol use, or will there be a further prosecution for use of a prohibited substance In this test of civil liberties, there is a line where a justified prosecution can descend into unwarranted persecution. The Echo maintains that cannabis abuse is a health issue not a criminal matter and that decriminalisation is a better social outcome than creating a criminal underclass out of people who prefer marijuana to a legal recreational drug such as alcohol. That said, driving under a skills-impairing dose of drugs of any kind is not acceptable to the responsible road user, and any test, along with an educational program, which can help curtail that behaviour is an appropriate response to community concerns.ome years after it was started, ATSIC has become the experiment that failed. John Howard now tells us that he has always been uncomfortable with it his Minister against
aboriginal affairs
, Amanda Vanstone, compares it to apartheid. Then why didnt they get rid of it eight years ago Because to have done so would have confirmed the view that Howard and his government are essentially racist. Actually most people got that message with Howards attacks on Asian immigration, the Wik judgement, reconciliation and the Stolen Children report, not to mention his exploitation of asylum seekers. But to have unilaterally knocked off the so-called indigenous parliament would have been a bit like donning a white sheet and waving burning cross. He couldnt do it until Labor, in the form of Mark Latham, signalled that disposal of ATSIC was now a bipartisan position. Latham, of course, saw it as a constructive move ATSIC had become too centralised, too nepotistic, and too tainted through ongoing scandals over its leadership. The institution had to go, but the principle of self-determination was to be preserved in regional councils, while a new elected body would take over ATSICs advisory role. Indeed, something similar had been recommended in a report prepared for ATSIC itself. Howard, on the other hand, wanted to lay waste the entire concept and sow the ground it stood on with salt. ATSIC and all it had represented was to be vaporised Aboriginal Affairs was to go back years, to a time whenany form of independence was unthinkable. Programs were to return to the mainstream departments which had failed so consistently to deliver improvement health being the most depressing example. Representation was to be by an appointed board of Uncle Toms and Aunt Jemimas on which, as a number ofalso suspicious and unhappy about the deputy-sheriff connection to Washington. Latham to them represents not some kind of revolutionary shift, but simply a return to normal. But if Latham is winning hearts and minds in Indonesia while, of course, losing them in America the realATSIC and all it had represented was to be vaporised Aboriginal Affairs was to go back years.by Mungo MacCallumindigenous leaders pointed out, no Aborigines in their right minds would ever sit. The emphasis was to be returned to what Howard calls practical reconciliation, by which he really means assimilation. Above all, symbolic issues were to be set aside as totally irrelevant. Except, perhaps, for a return to that oldest symbol of all the lie of terra nullius. Bring out the white sheet. days I have just Jakarta spent in In the eightBali, thetwo menPost contained just tions of Australia. One, of course, was the news of Rupert Murdochs move out of the place. The other was an approving coverage of Mark Lathams foreign policy speech, a report which dismissed with contempt the criticisms of Alexander Downer, who seems even more despised in Indonesia than he is in Australia. In spite of Downers constant protests to the contrary, there is no doubt that at least some of our regional neighbours feel neglected by the Howard government and are concern must be with the voters in Australia and it is far from clear that continuing the foreign policy-defence-intelligence-security debate is the way to win over the doubters. Superficially it might look as though Latham is ahead. The growing chaos in Iraq, the stream of whistleblowers from the intelligence services, the rise of anti-war sentiment in the United States and elsewhere should be working in Labors favour. I also suspect that the parade of American and Iraqi propagandists trotted out by the government and the media to attack Lathams policy of withdrawal is counterproductive we will decide, et cetera. But when Latham and others start comparing Iraq with Vietnam, I get a nightmarish flashback. I remember . This was the year of Australias Vietnam election. There was no international consensus about intervention in Vietnam either the United Nations was not involved and even the British were opposed. It was an American adventure supported by atoken Australian presence. The conservative government was gung ho about supporting our ally and would not hear of possible defeat we would never cut and run.The Labor opposition described the war as unwinnable and campaigned on a policy of immediate withdrawal. The Prime Minister, Harold Holt, fell back on his great and powerful friend, the President of the United States for support, which he duly received. At the election which followed Labor was beaten by a record margin. Indeed the margin was so great that although Gough Whitlam picked up seats three years later, with Vietnam still an issue, it wasnt enough to win in . He had to wait until , with Vietnam out of the picture, to bring Labor to power on a platform in which health and education were the principal planks. I know, I know Iraq isnt really the same as Vietnam for starters, most Australians opposed getting involved in the first place. And we have learned things since then, the times have changed and circumstances are very different. But the fact remains that, for all the sentimental harking back to John Curtin and the glory days of World War II, Foreign Affairs and Defence have seldom been Labors strong points. Howard has made the whole security area his own fighting at his end of the field the best Labor can hope to do is break even.To win Latham needs to get back on his own turf specifically, health and education. There will be time to play the international statesman when if he becomes prime minister. For now, its the domestic issues, stupid.BRUNSWICK HEAD LINDS AWNING ROMAN BLINDS VERTICAL DRAPES VENETIAN BLINDS TIMB ALUM HOLLAND BLINDS PLEATED BLINDS FABRIC AND METAL AWNINGS PATIO COVERS SECURITY DOORS AND SCREENS FLYSCREENS AND DOORS TIMBER SHUTTERSSthis weekpagesLetters . Articles . 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