Roebourne on Grog Ban Hitlist

Roebourne Grog Ban Plan Slammed

This is all very well but what are the drinkers from Roebourne going to do?  At the present, they buy their grog in nearby Wickham which is a ten minute drive away, or alternatively at Point Samson a few more kays down the road, and take it back to Roebourne.  This is because there is currently nowhere to get take away alcohol at Roebourne.  If this proposed ban comes in the only difference that it will make is that they stay in Wickham or Samson to do their drinking, hence all the alcohol problems are just shifted to there.  This is what has happened in other places these total bans have been brought in.  No thanks Supt Ballantyne!

Unfortunately Wickham residents have suffered the implementation of poorly considered alcohol policies before.  For example, the local bottlo used to be open until 8.30 pm, now it shuts at 7.00 pm Mondays through Wednesdays.  Of course, this makes no difference to the problem drinkers who sit on their arses all day and can get grog at their leisure.  However, those who wake up to an alarm at 5.30 am and bust their guts on twelve hour shifts at the nearby iron ore operation are inconvenienced by the fact that the bottlo is shut the moment their shift ends.  If they want a couple of beers after a hard days yakka they need to organize supplies in advance.

I figured that this is what they’re doing with cars impounded under the WA hoon laws when drivers are caught doing burn-outs or street racing etc.  I’ve resolved to email the pic to rellos overseas who don’t believe you can have your car impounded over here.

Before posting to this blog I found this article of six days ago on thewest.com.au.  Apparently this banner thing is a trial only being conducted in Karratha at time of posting.  One of the posters to the blog linked to the article mentions that the number plates of the vehicles are removed while it is impounded in the police yard.  Other posters seem to think that the law only covers drivers doing burn-outs in car parks and is just a beat-up, but I’m quite sure it covers street racing and exceeding the speed limit by a certain margin also.

Where I live I was lying in bed at about 1AM about two years ago and actually heard the impact of a vehicle hitting a tree in someone’s front yard a good 750 meters away.  The guy was full of booze and bad manners and left the residential road airborne and struck the tree with his front passenger door.  He was OK but the passenger was taken away by the ambos and later flown to Perth.  He survived but his heart stopped twice on the way to hospital.

What annoys me even more is the silliness of having to go to a doctor when there’s nothing wrong with me, just to get a piece of paper so that I can legally purchase drugs that I’m only really taking because of the withdrawl symptoms I experience if I stop.  (The taxpayer subsidises pharmaceuticals here too, by the way.)  A few years ago, a doctor put me on these SSRIs because he thought my sleeping problems had something to do with anxiety and/or depression.  My guess is that my day-night continuous shift roster has more to do with it.  Anyway, after missing a couple of days of the pills I experienced the withdrawl symptoms which SSRI takers, as I later learned from the internet, know as “brain shake”.  I wish I’d known about this beforehand.  Isn’t this the same as what illegal drug dealers do?  The pharma corporations are on a good screw here if you ask me.  And do you think you can find a doctor who recommends weaning oneself off these things?  One doctor I saw was almost visibly excited when I told her that I was taking them.  “Happy pills”, she called them!

One wonders what percentage of the total amount spent on doctors and pharmaceuticals in Australia, by individuals and the taxpayer alike,  might be put to better use.  And just out of interest, does anyone know why there doesn’t appear to be nearly as many anxiety or depression sufferers in Dharavi, Mumbai?

The first occurred at a supermarket liquor store, owned by a large supermarket chain, in a town in the Pilbara in the state’s north, pictured here:

The liquor store entrance is at the far left of the picture.  At the far right of the picture, between the two small trees and some 50 metres away, is a park bench with a shade cover, also pictured here:

Now, at just after 8pm one evening, which is after dark, a couple of people go into the liquor store and buy some booze.  Unbeknowns to anyone, they go over to the park bench identified and start drinking there in the dark.  A short while later the cops drive around the place on a patrol and shine a light on the drinkers, telling them that they’re not supposed to be drinking there.  The drinkers up and leave, without incurring any penalty it must be added, presumably to continue their drinking who knows where.  Anyway, the cops then go into the liquor store and give the girl behind the counter an official written warning for allowing people to consume alcohol on the premises in contravention of the store’s license, and warn her that she risks a very large fine if any further breach occurs.

How does this add up?  Well apparently the fact that the park bench on the edge of the car park is on the supermarket property means that it is legally considered to be on the premises of the liquor store for all licensing purposes.  It seems that most people’s common sense definition, which would limit it to the store’s interior and perhaps the immediate visible vicinity of the store entrance, isn’t applied.  It doesn’t seem to matter that the offenders were not even in the line of sight of the store entrance, nor that they were in pitch darkness and couldn’t be seen anyway, nor that the store attendant was busy inside the store with her back to a brick wall serving customers.  What could be done to comply with such an interpretation of this law?  Well, perhaps the supermarket could employ someone to patrol the car park at night to ensure people aren’t hanging around after buying grog, but what does that have to do with the young lady behind the counter?

The second story; same liquor store, different night, different attendant, very different customers, no cops involved this time.  A woman and her adult daughter walk into the store and each one selects a couple of items for themselves and head to the counter.  Each woman holds cash to pay for their respective purchases.  The attendant asks the younger woman for ID:

Young woman:  “I haven’t got any with me.  Anyway I’m twenty four next month.”

Attendant:  “Yeah, but I have to ask for ID if you look like you’re under twenty five, that’s the rule.”

So the young woman hands her money to her mother and stands aside for her to pay.

The attendant says:  “Now I’m not allowed to serve either of you.”

So then both the daughter AND the mother, both working, tax paying, law abiding, sober and well behaved adults, were unable to purchase anything just because one had passed money to the other in the store!  And apparently that’s how it is!

A few more in brief:

• The tavern five minutes down the road is not allowed to serve double shots of spirits, nor single shots without a mix.  There’s no tequila behind the bar.

• At the town five minutes in the other direction, motel patrons are limited to six beers per night.

• In Onslow WA, they write your name down on a piece of paper whenever you buy alcohol at the shop.

And something from the media about life in Perth, perhaps a little more sensible but not much.  On Christmas Day perthnow had a piece about a few people enjoying the festive season with a quiet glass of champers at the beach:

Christmas Revellers Hit the Beach

–

HUNDREDS of Perth families celebrated Christmas in style on Cottesloe and Scarborough beaches this morning.  Families from across Perth flocked to the coast for a day of sun, surf and sand.

Ag and Sam Willis and their friend Lane Dorvil began their day with a champagne breakfast and swim at Cottesloe beach.  “This is the best way to start the day with a glass of champagne on the beach,’’ Ms Willis said. Ms Willis said they were expecting about 20 of their friends and family to join them at the beach.

AUSSIE TRADITION: Christmas at Cottesloe Beach.

The article made no mention about the fact that alcohol consumption in public places is actually illegal, and that seems odd considering that storys about transgressions of this law is fairly standard fare for the media in this state.  This point wasn’t missed, however, by the readers who posted comments about the story:

“It is an offence to consume alcohol at beaches, in parks, on the street, on the road and pretty much anywhere else in public in WA. It is a total blanket ban, not just for teenagers or party goers, but everyone – nice people included.”

“Just shows theres one rule for some, and another rule for others. If that was 20 year old drinking that champagne it would of been confiscated and the patron having a $100 fine slapped on them. But because their a bit older they *assume* that they aren’t going to be unruly…”

It seems Joe Public is awake to the discriminatiory way in which this law is enforced.

“I’m sure I heard supacop Karl say on TV that the cops are allowed to ignore dinking by ‘responsible’ people.”

I might make an effort to find the occasion on which WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callahan said this on TV, as Steve of Gosnells commented.  It might be worth quoting by the bloke who next gets ticketed for having a beer in his hand when he crosses his own residential area street to go to his mate’s house across the road; or the guy with a beer moving his front lawn sprinkler who then decides to go down to check his mailbox and in doing so takes two steps off his property into a “public place”.

Ross.

Estimated Path

That’s the latest Forecast Track Map from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.  If it stays away from Karratha we’re OK.

STC Billy

A similar thing, this one’s from the US Naval Research Laboratory in California.  These guys have a good track record with predicting our cyclone movements.

Satellite Image

That’s a satellite image, also from the US Naval Research Laboratory in California.  It probably looks worse than it is.  Outside my house right now it’s dead calm.

Fingers crossed.

Ross.

How about all this baloney about how much we’re spending or not spending over Christmas?

Australians Tipped to Spend Up at Boxing Day Sales; Aussies Spend Up Big Despite Crisis; Shoppers Tipped to Splurge Handouts in $677m Boxing Day Spending Spree.

I don’t bother with gifts and nor does my family, and I think the rationalization by the economists as per this column in The West Australian by Ross Gittins sums up our attitude to the whole thing, even though a different conclusion is reached by the author.  Gittins’ economists take the words out of my mouth when they reason that we know what we want better than others.  I just buy what I want for myself.  This year I got myself sheepskin seat covers for my car because I wanted them.  No need for anyone to go through the mental anguish of guessing what I might want and vice versa.  (By the way, if you want sheepskin covers for your car seats check out www.prestige-sheepskin.com.au.)  Furthermore, I don’t feel the need to bribe my parents into giving me an inheritance, as I know they’ve blown it already, and I’ve already given them a nice house to live in during their retirement so they don’t need to bribe me.

Another column discusses Christmas gifts and the economic paradox of thrift.

As an aside, I got a surprise Christmas gift in the mail this morning from my real estate agent; a nice salad bowl!  I suppose it wasn’t really a big surprise as they give me a gift every Christmas.  I’ll give them a plug too; OrangeTee Commercial & General Real Estate.   When I work out how its done I’ll put all of the good businesses I come across in a list on the main page.

Anyway I’ll have another glass of red to celebrate.  After I’ve chased a cockroach out of my house.

Merry Christmas people!

Ross.