Minister right to stand up and not make vapes new prohibition

Michael Pettersson knows that the three pillars of Australia's Harm Minimisation (not reduction) Policy are supply reduction, demand reduction, and harm reduction. But it is not a balanced approach, at least not as far as funding goes. Harm reduction receives less than three per cent of the budget whereas supply reduction through law enforcement and prevention receives 78 per cent and the rest to treatment.

And yet it is treatment and harm reduction that research shows have the most potential of saving lives and improving health outcomes. Emma Davidson, ACT Population Health Minister, knows this and is therefore correct to stand up for what she knows is right.

Yes, law enforcement needs to intercept illegal e-cigarettes where it can but history shows that the interception of other illicit drugs at best captures 20 per cent of what arrives on our streets.

Why would e-cigarettes be any different?

Our prohibitionist policies on e-cigarettes have created another avenue for organised crime. And why should our young people be those criminalised for such poor policy making?

Yes, discourage them from using vapes or any other drugs but if they are tempted they need truthful, well re-searched drug education and harm reduction strategies to keep them as healthy as possible, giving them a chance to outlive their folly.

Congratulations to Greens Minister Emma Davidson who appears to be the only one in the ACT Assembly capable of reading her history books about the effects on community of banning drugs.

Prohibition of alcohol in the USA was a disaster and set up organised crime networks around the country that still exist to this day.

Nearly 80,000 people are busted for cannabis in Australia each year. For what?

Taxing tobacco so it's not affordable to working class people anymore has seen dozens of tobacco shops firebombed in Melbourne by organised crime syndicates.

And now we want to ban vaping. The genie is already out of the bottle.

Governments now need to turn their sights to harm minimisation for those struggling with vaping issues otherwise we will surely end up with our own 'vaping wars' on the streets of Canberra.

The all or nothing policy from the ACT Greens on vaping is to be condemned.

Your recent editorial on the refusal of Emma Davidson to sign the letter to school principals is on the mark ("Davidson hits out at vape prohibitionist policy", August 14).

The potential public health problems caused by vaping are enormous. Excuses such as those used by the minister are typical of the Greens. Yes, more needs to be done to assist those who already vape but why reject a measure which is so obviously an important step in the right direction?

I find myself astonished to be in agreement with John Winston Howard ("Ship of Fools", April 12).

I can only agree with his denunciation of Department of Health nitpicking on the name of the Sirius building. Does the Department have nothing more "sirius" than this on its agenda?

I see that the Centre for Independent Studies likewise has nothing more sirius on its agenda either.

I have a solution to this grave national issue. The star Sirius is the brightest in the sky. It must have an Aboriginal name.

Ask the First Nations people of the ACT what it is and put that on the building. And put back the rest of the relevant material also.

We've had stunning weather of late for getting out and about and taking in the activities in the capital. While driving around the lake at the weekend we came across the Governor-General's Scout Camp in the grounds of Government House [It runs until April 19].

Well done all involved in this, the first of its kind for the past 100 years so we were told. A mighty job of organisation. Thank you Your Excellency, as Chief Scout of Australia, in making this possible by opening up the entire area for the week to these young people. A beautiful setting for them to participate in a very worthwhile project.

It then occurred to us, as we looked out from the Arboretum over the presently very under-utilised rowing course off the Weston Park reach of the lake, that perhaps a future project could be considered for the Sea Scouts - an opportunity there for our Chief Minister maybe to digress from current projects and magnanimously offer the open parkland adjacent to the boat launch area for a similar gathering! When the course is not being used for regattas or club rowing, naturally. Which it doesn't seem to be a lot of the time, particularly end of summer and prior to the local winter time trials.

As the parents of a former rower, we can appreciate that most of us are still abed when the backs of the fit are being bent to the oars in training so we are aware of the course usage for local rowing club activities.

It's strange Mark Kenny agrees with Hugo Weaving that we don't openly discuss Gaza here. ("Risks in Dutton's right-wing lurch, April 14). Considering how many articles, opinion articles and letters there are on the topic, not to mention countless hours on the ABC, how much coverage would there be if we did "openly discuss" it.

By contrast, we never hear about the civil war in Sudan, where five to six million people are at risk of famine, to give one example.

Kenny's typical laundry list of claims against Israel are all false. Israel is fighting a war of self-defence against terrorists whose blatant human shield tactics intentionally make civilian casualties a tragic inevitability. It allows all available aid into Gaza and evacuates civilians from areas of fighting.

Defence has repeatedly said that any military-related export applications are assessed for "human rights risks and Australia's compliance with its international obligations".

But according to an Action On Armed Violence report of April 2024 - which is based on DFAT trade figures - Australian arms and ammunition exports to Israel have totalled over $13 million over the last five years.

It seems from these figures that there's not in fact much diligent scrutiny of Australian export applications. Clearly, we should not be exporting any items to Israel that put civilian lives at risk.

The readers' panel results in The Canberra Times (April 13) are interesting.

In all 70 per cent voted "yes" to Sam Mostyn as a good choice for Australia's next governor-general, suggestive of a progressive stance.

Yet in a city that typically votes for the ALP, 56 per cent favoured the Liberals' busway proposal for Civic to Woden, as compared with only 35 per cent favouring the Labor-Greens light rail proposal to Woden.

Could it be that ALP and Greens voters have finally woken up to the Civic to Woden light rail debacle?

Re the Commonwealth government's new policy to encourage Australian industry. I notice both some enthusiastic support and some comments cautioning against initiatives that have very little prospect of being either commercially viable or essential to national security.

Presumably the government is aware of the dangers.

Perhaps, as more detail is provided, they will make it clear that priority will be given to activities and products which are not only important, but in relation to which Australia has natural advantages.

An example would be to give a high priority to the green energy processing here in Australia of minerals that we extract and of agricultural products that we produce.

This processing "on site" is more likely to give us a commercially viable businesses than the manufacture of, for example, solar panels - an activity that Germany was at the forefront of some years ago, but has since abandoned in the face of more competitively priced panels and inverters from China.

I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't develop the capacity to manufacture, even at a price disadvantage, things that are important to our national security, but let's give priority to things that have a good chance of making profit that can then be used to support further investment.

Well may the PM continue to milk political preciousness from the Bondi stabbings, among other ways by exhorting praise "for the mental health workers" now at hand to buzz over the event. The assailant, whom the police have said only had a mental health "forensic" history, doesn't seem to have received much in the way of preventative care previous to being shot.

It would be interesting to know how many people have complained to the managers at the Department of Health and Aged Care about the name 'Sirius'.

Reports suggest US President Joe Biden is considering dropping the charges against Julian Assange. I could be wrong but my gut feeling is that if he does so it will be after the presidential election in November. At that time, whatever the outcome, he'll have nothing to lose.

Advocates of building houses on sheep paddocks face barriers from "baas" on the one hand and Barrs on the other.

There was a time when Israel could deal with a war in six days, and with its actions sanctioned.

Must be a slow news day when John Howard trots out, or is trotted out, for the predictably negative comment on the name change of the 'Sirius Building'.

The tranquil existing NGA sculpture garden, with its fine artworks and sublime landscaping, is a place of great heritage and cultural significance. It just needs a tidy up and better access from the gallery, and not a multi-million dollar makeover, which could ruin its time-honoured ambience.

I wish to correct Frank Longhurst who is adamant that "Jerrabomberra is a separate town" and "is not in Queanbeyan" and that "Queanbeyan is not part of Jerrabomberra" (Letters, April 10). Wrong. Jerrabomberra is a suburb of Queanbeyan, just as Karabar, Carwoola, Crestwood, The Ridgeway etc are also suburbs of Queanbeyan.

The Israelis have, with something less than enthusiasm, allowed us to have a "special adviser on Israel's response to the killing of seven aid workers". I remember when we told the Chinese about three years ago we would have to investigate the origins of COVID. Fortunately we don't trade much in the way of barley, beef, cotton, wine and lobsters to Israel.

So this is what Australia is coming to, renaming buildings at the behest of a few. I despair. How about naming and shaming the Department of Health executives, who in total represent millions in remuneration, for going along with this idiocy and revisionism. When will this end?