Faced with the reality of office, everytime it comes up against an uncomfortable moment in the media cycle the Rudd Government has been drawing out of the hat that old trick of re-labelling some troublesome behaviour as significant social problems and then telling the world that these were out of control or at 'epidemic' levels.
Coming out from under 11 years of John Howard using this very same tactic, it was easy to spot the political dog whistles.
Teenagers out-of-control, bad parents, addicts.
This was confirmed mid-week when the COAG communique was posted at the Prime Minister of Australia website here.
"Binge Drinking. COAG today agreed on the importance of tackling alcohol misuse and binge drinking among young people. COAG agreed to ask the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy to report to COAG in December 2008 on options to reduce binge drinking including in relation to closing hours, responsible service of alcohol, reckless secondary supply and the alcohol content in ready to drink beverages. COAG also asked the Australia New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council to request Food Standards Australia New Zealand to consider mandatory health warnings on packaged alcohol.
Gambling. COAG agreed to continue to discuss issues related to problem gambling".
A perfect example of sound and fury signifying very little.
Not so easy is it fellas. Just because you are now teh Federal Government doesn't automatically mean you would be able to come up with instant easy-fix answers or allow you to pretend that this focus on binge drinking and gambling was anything other than a beat up.
I look forward to hearing you discover Laura Norder, border security and welfare 'cheats' next week.
Friday 28 March 2008
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