There’s a line when you can reasonably enforce certain regulations on alcohol and still put responsibility and choice into the hands of people who consume it. Laws like this would cross it.
>> Not sure what your construct of “a line” means. Perhaps it is a point of your acceptance? In any case, The Pedestrian 08 proposal is based on the success we have had here with our Motorists Point 05 law, which combined an easily understood BAC point 05 upper limit, an extensive and ongoing education campaign, reinforced via a judicious use of Random Breath Testing.
>> Your reference to “responsibility and choice” ignores the devastating role Big Liquor advertising and sporting sponsorships have played in bringing up the total consumption of toxic, carcinogenic and addictive alcohol. To get a handle on how “responsibility and choice” is altered by Big Liquor’s very clever and comprehensive, cradle to grave marketing campaign, review this research from the British Medical Association: http://pedestrian08.org/2009/10/03/an-evil-face-fevola-and-the-british-medical-association/

And if you have to resort to emotional manipulation by claiming policing people’s alcohol usage is vital to protecting yourself or “someone you love”, then you don’t have a legitimate case for any state passing laws like this, period.
>> Puzzling line this. So, if you are worried about someone you love being or been killed or forever injured or traumatised by an act of alcohol fueled violence, be it via a fist, kick or car, then you don’t “have a legitimate case for any state passing laws like this, period”? This is kind of a weird construct IMHO.

Alcohol is a terrible and destructive substance, but it will never vanish from this earth.
>> Mandate, the idea is to minimise the total annual intake and specifically to minimise binge drinking – especially binge drinking that occurs in contact with the public.
In my state the forecast total annual intake of carcinogenic ethanol/alcohol is set to rise by another 0.5 litre per person per year.
This will have terrible consequences for so many – including the unborn – as 1 in a 100 who will suffer FASD.
Minimising marketing and using a drink walking limit as a vehicle for education and limitation of intake is just commonsense.

People will find a way to use it and abuse it until the end of humanity.
>> Yes, but, our society is on the way to eliminating tobacco use. So, no need to get negative on this terrible drug of addiction. Alcohol can be beaten. All the needed policies are known.

People will always die from alcohol poisoning, people will jump off bridges, commit suicide, beat their children, and there are people who will get drunk at an office party and wake up hungover the next morning and that will be the end of it.
>> The role of sensible policy and legislation work is to minimise the above. And all of the above can be minimised.

People from all walks of life are different, and alcohol affects people’s lives in different ways. Instead of dictating everyone else’s freedom based on someone else’s abuse of it, try targeting those who abuse it,
>> If your “choice” or the choice of someone you know is to endanger the lives of others via binge drinking, beyond a safe, pedestrian BAC Limit, then your behaviour, or that of the culprit, needs to be identified and targeted.

either by supporting groups like AA or local church organizations.
>> AA needs to be funded beyond it’s limits by the those making money out of the misery of others. Eg, Big Liquor, their acolytes and the governments who support them.

Instead of pouring money into smear campaigns in local television, donate to organizations like Children of Alcoholics. Put your money, time, and effort towards a constructive cause. Nobody’s going to listen to you otherwise.
>> From little things, big things grow Mandate! The motorist 05 campaign took 20 years or so to garner support.

>> Thanks again for your contribution.

There’s a line when you can reasonably enforce certain regulations on alcohol and still put responsibility and choice into the hands of people who consume it. Laws like this would cross it.

And if you have to resort to emotional manipulation by claiming policing people’s alcohol usage is vital to protecting yourself or “someone you love”, then you don’t have a legitimate case for any state passing laws like this, period.

Alcohol is a terrible and destructive substance, but it will never vanish from this earth. People will find a way to use it and abuse it until the end of humanity. People will always die from alcohol poisoning, people will jump off bridges, commit suicide, beat their children, and there are people who will get drunk at an office party and wake up hungover the next morning and that will be the end of it.

People from all walks of life are different, and alcohol affects people’s lives in different ways. Instead of dictating everyone else’s freedom based on someone else’s abuse of it, try targeting those who abuse it, either by supporting groups like AA or local church organizations. Instead of pouring money into smear campaigns in local television, donate to organizations like Children of Alcoholics. Put your money, time, and effort towards a constructive cause. Nobody’s going to listen to you otherwise.

i’ve listened to the interview a few times. i have some comments on it that i’d like to pass on. it will take me a while to get them down. please let me know if you’d like them posted here, or elsewhere.

Met you today at that Brighton polling booth. Only 5 comments here and so foulmouthed! These people don’t even take the time to read and understand your good intentions. Please don’t be discouraged: Rome wasn’t built in a day and there are always fools among the bricklayers.

Very disappointed to see that the ABC here: http://www.abc.net.au/elections/vic/2010/guide/brig.htm not only doesn’t even mention you by name, but indicates that you got a swing against yourself! As a first time candidate and all, that’s pretty hard to beat…:-) Of course, it doesn’t really mean that, it’s just that the previous independent candidate might have got more votes than you, and I have no idea what their plank was. Maybe they had a bigger crowd of supporters. Also, some of those who usually voted Lib might have supported the previous independent on first prefs, but this time people are so annoyed with Labour, even Brighton has a 10%+ swing to the Libs.

Best wishes for the future, and your campaign ( which should not stop…. now comes the approaches to new Government Ministers, for ex.) and also for the Festive Season!

So next time your neigbours have a house party, remember that under your ‘ideology’, there will be 10 times the number of guests (too risky to go to a bar or a club) and they will have to stay all night (too risky to walk to a taxi). Do you have spare beds? They could climb the fence as its too risky on the footpath.
Or maybe they will just take $50 pills, preferrably one of the new ones no one knows anything about so they can be sure that they cannot be tested. Its a bright new Cockburn world.