Exposed: The lies that started the NT intervention

By Kieran Adair, and Liz Cush

 

It’s been 4 years since Tjanara Goreng Goreng blew the whistle on a Howard Government conspiracy to mislead public perception of Indigenous Issues in the lead up to the Northern Territory intervention.

Tjanara, then an employee of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, leaked confidential department documents to members of the press gallery exposing how a senior bureaucrat posed as an Youth Worker on ABC’s Lateline and made claims about paedophile rings in the Aboriginal Community of Mutitjula.

These claims were later used as a key justification for implementing the intervention.

This did not come without personal cost to Ms. Goreng Goreng, after the story broke her house was raided by police.

She will be appearing along side Chris Graham, founding editor of the National Indigenous Times, to talk about their experiences in exposing the scandal, and highlight the shaky foundations of the Intervention.

The forum, ‘Racism in the media: the lie that built the Northern Territory intervention’ is being hosted by Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS), an organisation which has led the public campaign to expose the lies and failures of the Northern Territory intervention.

The speakers at will analyse the ABC Lateline program ‘Sexual slavery reported in Indigenous communities’, and discuss how it helped the Federal Government mount the case for the NT intervention.

According to Graham the scandal surrounding this story has already destroyed several careers, sparked a series of parliamentary brawls, and led to police raids on homes in Canberra and Central Australia.

Goreng Goreng will discuss the personal cost of taking a stand as a whistle blower.

Graham will provide an insight into the ABC story, and detail what he says were a series of frauds perpetrated on Lateline viewers.

“If you think you know what media behaving badly looks like, then you need to think again,” Graham said.

“The Northern Territory intervention has harmed Aboriginal people; it’s caused starvation; it’s seen a dramatic rise in reports of self-harm incidents; it’s driven children away from school; it’s wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. In short, it’s been a disaster for the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens, the people who could least afford it.

“The media has always played a crucial role in creating an environment where governments can get away with race politics during election campaigns. In this case, the government couldn’t have done it without Lateline.”

This comes in the same week as incoming independent MP Andrew Wilkie has called on the Australian Government to implement strong new laws to protect whistle blowers.

‘Racism in the media: the lie that built the Northern Territory intervention’ will take place at the University of Technology, Sydney from 6pm on Friday, September 3 (University Hall, Building 4, 745 Harris Street, Ultimo).

Read more here. http://www.altmedia.net.au/exposed-the-lies-that-started-the-nt-intervention/24018

Free dental care? Fuck yes!

It has been over a week since the election was held, and even notoriously apathetic Australians are being to wonder what the hell is going on.
It all hinges on who the independents will side with, and who they side with will be whoever meets their demands.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie from the seat of Denison, Tasmania, today presented a 20 point wish list to the Prime Minister and the Coalition, split into national, local and office sections.
This is a very nice list of actions that a lot of Australians would love to see fulfilled. Introducing a loss limit on all poker machines in Australia would set a benchmark for the rest of the world and stop the image of the government as a boat floating on the money of gambling addicts. Honouring the "spirit" of the UN Refugee Convention would be a beautiful thing, but come on, this is Australia.
Unfortunately, Wilkie is putting these requests to the government, not the United Nations.

National

Introduction of maximum $1 bet and $120/hour loss limits on all poker machines in Australia.


Urgent action on climate change, including a price on carbon.

Honouring the word and spirit of the UN Refugee Convention.

Federal whistleblower legislation.

According the same funding priority to mental health care as afforded currently to GP and hospital services.

Including dental care in Medicare.

Overturning the recent Federal Government decision to extend to 2014 the review of the Federal funding model for education. Instead complete the review by 2012, and implement the recommendations as soon as practicable. Increased funding for tertiary institutions.

Increasing all Government pensions, allowances and other payments to levels people can actually live on. Enhance the method of indexation so as to ensure they genuinely keep pace with inflation.

A conscience vote on same-sex marriage.

Increased funding of aged care facilities.

The introduction of a national disability insurance scheme.

Local

Replacement of the Royal Hobart Hospital. In the interim, leasing of sub-acute beds in private hospitals to help reduce the RHH occupancy rate to the national level.

Stage 3 of the National Broadband Network complete by end 2012.

Withdrawal of all Federal Government approvals for Gunns' Tamar River pulp mill.

Immediate release of the $20 million relief funding for Tasmanian forestry contractors pledged by the ALP and Coalition.

Stage 1 of the Southern Councils Transport Plan implemented.

The northern suburbs light rail funded and developed.

Re-alignment of the Brighton bypass to protect the Jordan River levee Aboriginal heritage site. Upgrade of the Brooker Highway and Plenty Valley link road.

Upgrade Hobart inner port infrastructure.

Realisation of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery master plan.

Stage 1 of the Glenorchy Sports, Recreation and Community Precinct funded and developed.

Office

Adequate staffing and office space to deal with the workload of an Independent Member of Parliament.
Now we're waiting for another Independent MP from North Queensland, Bob Katter, to release his set of demands. Lovely looking bloke, isn't he?
 

Post Acid

Have you heard of Jihad Watch?

Why does it exist?

Because non-Muslims in the West, as well as in India, China, Russia, and the world over, are facing a concerted effort by Islamic jihadists, the motives and goals of whom are largely ignored by the Western media, to destroy their societies and bring them forcibly into the Islamic world...
Before it's too late for Western Europe and the United States, which gave birth to the traditions of freedom and equality of rights for all that shine today as lights in the entire world, this must be stopped.

Do you believe in exporting American values to every last corner of the globe? Do you think Obama is a Jew/Muslim/terrorist? Do you just not like other people very much?

This website is for you.

Read and weep.

On the other hand, this a video clip by Wavves called Post-Acid.

Havana is not a shoe, dickhead.

Michael Jang snapped the kids of the revolution.

But they seem oblivious to the heavy stuff going on around them. They're too busy smoking, drinking, kissing and fighting.

To my relief, there are no Che Guevera references to be found in this collection.

Big Jet Plane

This song is a bit old now. But I just discovered the video clip.
Angus and Julia Stone seem to have a thing for aircraft.
Paper Aeroplane... Big Jet Plane...
This reminds me of working at Toys R Us when I was like, 16 and really hating life.

Labor, Liberal economic policies nearly identical

Economists indifferent to who governs

By Wouter Klijn

Thu 26 Aug 2010

Whatever form the government ends up taking, the Australian economy is unlikely to be much affected, economists say.

After rather dull campaigning from the dominant political parties, the Australian election became unexpectedly riveting when the race turned out to be neck and neck.

The resulting hung parliament is the first at the federal level since 1940, and has created much uncertainty as to who will govern and how this will impact on the various sectors of the Australian economy.

But as for the Australian economy overall, the final outcome does not particularly matter.

Not a bit, economists have said.

"In a macro-economical sense I struggle to see, to be honest, enormous near-term implications stemming from [the election]," Deutsche Bank Australia chief economist Adam Boyton said.

"Both parties more or less present a very similar outlook for the budget; both get back to surplus in the same year."

The Labor Party has said it will return to a surplus of $3.5 billion in 2013, while the coalition projections focus on a surplus of $6.2 billion that year.

"Yes, the surplus in that year is different, but anyone who spent any length of time looking at Treasury's forecasting performance will tell you that it is going to be much more, ultimately, than what has been promised as far as budget bottom line is concerned," Boyton said.

HSBC strategist Andre de Silva agreed.

"Broad economic policies across the parties are similar," de Silva wrote in a report earlier this week.

"The current incumbent government and the main opposition have both pledged to maintain the independence of the Reserve Bank of Australia in implementing monetary policy set on an inflation target of 2-3 per cent."

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said: "Policy differences between the two major parties are minor.

"None promised significant productivity-enhancing policies during the election campaign anyway, but nor does any party have any mandate for a leftward shift in economic policies.

"While a Liberal/National coalition government would resist less business-friendly policies, the Labor Party is also likely to avoid upsetting business given its debilitating battle with the miners and the knowledge it will only work against the economy longer term."

Finally, UBS economist Scott Haslem said there was little to distinguish the two major parties on monetary and fiscal policy.

"We see no fundamental change to the quality and pragmatism of policy setting in Australia over the medium term, based on the 'known' policy platforms of either party," Haslem said.

But he did warn that reform momentum in the economy could stall as a more difficult Parliament could limit consensus and the flow of policies.

"This is particularly the case under a coalition minority government faced with a Senate now controlled by the Greens," he said.

Drop the Debt

Here is something they don't tell you on the World Vision ads:

Contrary to a myth popular in the West, the poor have funded the rich through interest on debt they never knew they had.

What is debt?

Start with the World Bank. An organization that loans a nation money when it is in crisis, right? The purpose of the World Bank when it was established after the Second World War was to rebuild Europe and then starting "developing" the Third World.

Developing is used in a loose sense here.

Power plants, factories and other liberal economic functions were built in parts of Africa and across Asia. By the 1980s, creditors received over $1.3 trillion from countries in debt for these projects.
Debt became the contemporary form of slavery.

Take the Philippines, where dictator Ferdinand Marcos accepted loans from international financial institutions to let Westinghouse build the Bataan Nuclear Power Station.

• 
  
  It cost $2.6 billion.
• 
  
  It was built on an earthquake zone.
• 
  
  The plant never opened.

Marcos pocketed a percentage of the money from the World Bank, then when he was overthrown in 1986, the Filipino people were left with a gigantic debt they never asked for.

In the early 1990s, forty percent of the Phillipines' budget went to paying back the interest on that debt to the World Bank.

The Philippines had a population of 94 million and in 2006, over forty percent of the people were living on less than $2 a day.

Debt is a large reason why places like Smokey Mountain exist, an enormous garbage tip in Manila which holds over two million tonnes of waste. People pick through garbage to eat. In Manila, over 50 per cent of the population live in slums.

Debt has not only a human cost, but destroys the environment as well. Philippines is very rich in natural resources, but food growing land has been turned into factories to appease the IMF (this is liberal reform).

The irony is that the rich world lectures developing nations like the Philippines on protecting the environment when paying back the West is the reason rainforests and rice paddies are being obliterated.

Poverty is not only a function of debt. There are numerous other social and political factors that come into play.

But do not be naive.

The World Bank is not a humanitarian organisation, despite the image they try to portray. They are a bank.

The debt from developing countries makes a tiny dent in the over all profit of this institution. 

But the function of the World Bank is not "working towards a world free of poverty". 

Otherwise they would wipe the debt that is choking half the world.

Do YOU give a shit? Go here.

Boyfriend

Everytime I turn on the television or the radio I feel like I'm going to puke at the prospect of having a liberal government. But I began to cheer up when I discovered these, undoubtedly the best indie album covers of the year. And the tracks are pretty sick too. My favourite is the Wavves album cover. You just can't go wrong with cats. Better yet, cats smoking joints.

Beat Connection - Surf Noir

Best Coast - Crazy For You

Wavves - King of the Beach

Watch this video for 'Boyfriend' by Best Coast.

Diggers

Why is war constantly glorified? Describing two people killed by a roadside bomb as "brothers in arms" does not change the fact that two men had their bodies ripped apart and endured painful deaths.
No one cares about nationhood when they're lying in the dirt dying. Your last thoughts will not be of our great country and waltzing Matilda.
Private Grant Kirby, a 35-year-old father of two girls from Brisbane, and 21-year-old Private Tomas Dale were the 19th and 20th Australians to die in Afghanistan.
According to "Operation Enduring Freedom" there have been 1,912 coalition deaths in Afghanistan since 2001.
http://icasualties.org/OEF/Nationality.aspx
These are not necessary deaths. Yet politicians are still determined to "see the mission through".

Outrun my gun.

I'm waiting for him to go inside. I'm peering from behind the brick wall, watching him load his tools into the back of the van.
My legs are freezing. Its been twenty minutes.

Welfare State?

So Tony Abbott's latest announcement is that we live in a "welfare state" and he wants to transform this great nation into an "opportunity society".

A welfare state is a system in which the government protects and promotes the economic and social well being of its citizens.

On both counts, Australia is not a welfare state.

Its easier to do a day of back breaking labour in the mines than obtain the "dole" or Centrelink. Has Tony Abbott ever acquainted himself with a Centrelink form? The questions are so detailed and complex that they mostly require an accountant to fill them out. I have long suspected the purpose of this is to dissuade people from daring to apply for Centrelink in the first place. Its a waste of time. You'd receive more benefits if you parked your arse outside the building and held out a hat. 

Centrelink are tighter than a Size 6 pair of skinny jeans, and no one can convince me that it is "easy" to get government benefits and live off them.

According to Abbott, there exists families who have lived off the dole for generations.

Where are these people? If they exist I am relying on Today Tonight to bring them to my attention. I'd like to meet them and find out how they have managed to sustain lavish and luxurious lifestyles at the expense of the Australian taxpayer on the pittance that Centrelink begrudgingly provides.

"I think that the best government is a government which as far as is humanly possible shares the ordinary life of the Australian people," Abbott said today.

Then get down to Centrelink, wait an hour in the queue, fill out 534 different forms, and then tell me how we're all living off the back of a welfare state.

Sleighbells

Wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces?

There is no way to stop the boats.

Its a safe bet to say that Bob Hawke was one of Australia's most popular Prime Ministers. He was elected four times and served from 1983-1991. I've always had a soft spot for old Hawkey and his womanizing, philandering, beer swilling ways. He is a smart bloke as well, having received honours from Oxford, Rikkyo University, Nanjing University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of New South Wales, and the University of South Australia.

He has many highly intelligent ideas, but espouses them in a down to earth, straight forward way.

For instance, he has described demon opposition leader Tony Abbott as "mad as a cut snake". He also believes "one of the great potential dangers confronting the world is the lack of understanding in regard to the Muslim world. Fanatics have misrepresented what Islam is. They give a false impression of the essential nature of Islam."

Now he has come out with another Hawke-ism, stating that there is absolutely no way to "stop the boats", as Tony Abbott keeps insisting the Liberal party will do if elected.

"We’re all bloody boat people," Hawke said. "That’s how we found the place."

Hawke said he understood the frustration of many voters at "queue jumpers", but said "we have to look at the other side of the coin". He said the Coalition’s approach to the boat people question was "nonsense".

He believes that "boat people" have got initiative, guts and courage, and "Australia needs people like that."

If only Hawke wasn't in his eighties yet.
He would kick that red head's arse.

"Today I chose her pink grapefruit bubble bath."

Showing people what you write can be like getting naked. In front of your uni lecturer. With Enya playing. Just weird and uncomfortable.
That is why I respect this woman here.
She has kindly given me a piece of her work "written ages ago".
It is interesting, engaging and altogether a very awesome read.
You'll see what I mean.
It was a bit challenging finding something to match this. But Cloud Control should do the trick. Listen while reading Kara Selinger's fantastic piece:

Untitled.

I sat in Michael’s car, listening to the mix CD I had found under the passenger seat. Though it was raining heavily, I kept the volume on low, pressing my ear against the speaker so I could hear. I did this because I know Mike hates it when people fiddle around with his things. He’s really particular in that way, but I don’t mind. It’s kind of cute. The songs were of the romantic persuasion, certainly not to Mike’s taste, which got me thinking that he might have a new girlfriend. He has been happier lately. I’d even caught him smiling a couple of times. That’s why I felt really sorry for him. The girl’s music choices definitely showed signs of a disturbed, even psychotic, mind. I would have to talk to Mike about this when he got back from work. I think I love him.

When the CD finished I turned my attention to the masochistic rain, which was beating itself senseless against the window. Everything outside looked blurry, artistic, so I made frames with my fingers. Once I had created every possible picture, and sold them for lots of money, I left my sanctuary and sprinted to the front door of our house.

I’d forgotten to take the keys with me, so I started looking for the spare. We hide it under one of the twenty four pot plants on our veranda. Unfortunately no one ever puts it back in the same place. I was moving quite slowly, because the raindrops falling onto my dress were very distracting. With each new drop the material became more transparent, seemingly melting, leaving me naked. Perhaps, if I stayed out here long enough, I would also melt away. Is melting painless? Was the witch in the wizard of Oz screaming because melting hurt, or because she didn’t want to die?

It was getting cold, so I quickened my hunt. It took me five minutes to remember that I had left the door open.

I felt like a shower, so I stripped off in the doorway and walked into Rebecca’s room. Rebecca likes to keep her toiletries on a bookcase shelf, rather than in the bathroom. Her mother sends over expensive products from Paris to make up for how ugly her daughter is, and Rebecca doesn’t like other people using them. It irritates me that she is so possessive of her belongings, particularly when the rest of us share everything. Because of this, I always make sure I use something of Rebecca’s when she is not around. Today I chose her pink grapefruit bubble bath. Michael always comments on how nice Rebecca smells when she uses it.

The Bathroom is on the second floor, the first door on the right. I have a habit of running up the stairs and swinging myself into it, but this time my face smashed into wood. I was surprised to find the bathroom door closed. We hadn’t fixed the lock yet, so it’s only every shut if someone is in there. This helps avoid confusion. Therefore, as I was the only person home, it should be open. I touched the handle, which was covered in a sticky substance. I licked it. It tasted like blood, but not mine. And it was on the floor as well. How strange. I could now hear the shower running. I know I shouldn’t walk in on them, but I was curious. So I opened the door.

I was confronted by red. Red was everywhere. Swirling in puddles on the floor, running down the mirror, smeared on the opaque plastic of the shower. And the walls! It was as if the set designer on a B grade horror flick had gotten over enthusiastic with splatters. Our curtains, stupid white frilly things that my Mum had given us as a housewarming present, were the only items in the whole room that had remained untouched. That seemed odd. Perhaps it was significant. I suddenly felt afraid of those curtains, so I ran over to the window and tore them down. Then I stood, watching, as the hungry blood ate them up. It was horrible. I started to cry, shoulder heaving, body shaking, and without thinking I feel to the ground. I could feel the sticky mess attach itself to my buttocks, arms, hands, legs, golden tendrils of my hair dipping into the violent puddles. What if it stained? Then other thoughts came. How could I possible know if this blood was clean? I could be getting syphilis right now. Shit. I needed to wash myself. I noticed a razor lying in front of the shower and pounced on it, with the intention of hacking off my soiled locks. Unfortunately, someone else had recently used it. The blades were chocked with hair, and something which I decided must be skin. Hot thick acid rose in my throat. I didn’t want to open that bloody shower door. Instead, I ran out, down the stairs and into the backyard. I was still holding Rebecca’s bottle, so I emptied it onto myself and washed in the rain.
***

I was sitting in the living room, wrapped in my comfort blanket, my eyes fixed on the front window. I have two flat mates, and I was positive that one of them was upstairs. Now I was waiting to see which one. It worried me that Mike’s car had been here all day. I kept on telling myself that he had caught the bus, but this didn’t shift the sick feeling that had befriended me. I knew he would never kill himself…but I was worried about the mix CD girl. I was blinded by the headlights when they finally arrived. This didn’t bother me, as I was still hesitant to find out the answer. When Rebecca’s car slowly came into focus I jumped up and ran to meet her. I’m not sure what my intentions were, but I am glad I held back, because I opened the door to Michael.

“Hey Verity. You smell nice”

I was shocked. This was followed by complete and utter joy, then confusion.

“Why were you driving Rebecca’s car?”

“You know she hates it when you call her that.”

“That doesn’t answer my question”

“Sorry. Just after you left Bec said she felt to sick too go to work, and that I should take her car because she knows mine is dodgy in wet weather. Speaking of Bec, where is she?”

“I think she’s in the shower”

“Is the door closed?”

“No”

Michael started to say something, but I silenced him with a kiss.
 

"I thought we were just beginning now you say we're in the past."

Who can actually give a Kylie Minogue song substance, meaning and...  make it sound good?
Only one man.

Hipsters

If you have lived in Sydney for the past three years you cannot have missed the rise of the hipster sub-culture. Hipsters, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia are:

"...urban middle class adults and older teenagers with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture, particularly alternative music, indie rock, independent film, magazines such as Vice and Clash, and websites like Pitchfork Media."

So can you like Bat for Lashes, read Vice and (without any irony) love George W. Bush (junior and senior)? Can you be a hipster and an ultra right wing conservative?

If you're a hipster, please answer.

Am I a hipster? No, I've never been cool enough to claim any sub-culture tag. Except maybe nerd.

What the fuck are hipsters? I eschew Wikipedia's definition. Hipsters are "I-wanna-live-in-Surry-Hills-and-ride-a-push-bike-while-reading-Proust-listening-to-Charlotte-Gainsbourg-on-my-iPod" people who have become a great new marketing tool.

See below.

We must either love each other, or we must die.

So you think the propaganda that we're getting slammed with now is bad.

Check out "Daisy" which was the first viral advertisement ever. It was launched in 1964 by the Lyndon B. Johnson campaign. Remember, this was only two years after the Cuban missile crisis, and the government were desperately trying to get public support for the Vietnam war. Possibly the scariest political advertisement ever.

"These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die."

Staying PC.

Picture this. You’re at a party, surrounded by pretentious university students.

Clutching your warm Corona, you cringe as you hear discussion of the “Third World”.

Wouldn’t the term “developing country” be more appropriate? This person is surely a Eurocentric pig who deserves to be run down in their own BMW.

Calm down. Before you earn yourself an assault charge in the name of political correctness think about the term “Third World”.

My hippie Year One teacher used Third World in relation to skinny African children and "shameful debt". But the term can be traced from the French Revolution in 1789. There were three social classes, the First, Second and Third Estates. What united the Third Estate is that most of the people in it had little or no wealth and yet were forced to pay disproportionately high taxes to the other Estates. They became the instigators of the revolution.

Alred Sauvy first used the term in a global sense at the end of World War II when he saw many nations as dispossessed, stating in L’Observateur, "...because at the end this ignored, exploited, scorned Third World like the Third Estate, wants to become something too".

The term was also used by the Non-Alligned Movement during the Cold War. They were mainly ex colonies that did not want to side with the East or West.

Eventually Third World became a way to describe countries with economic commonalities: lower levels of industrialization, greater poverty and less access to life’s necessities and comforts.

So why would using the term make you an asshole?

Mainly because grouping countries together based on levels of industrialization ignores differences between these places in other areas. For instance, Cambodia and Tanzania are both classed as Third World or Least Developed Countries (LDCs), but they have completely different historical backgrounds, cultural traditions and language situations.

Another argument against using the term is that the Third World also exists inside the First World, and vice versa. There is poverty in abundance within Australia if you look closely enough. And in most countries there are also groups of affluent and wealthy people.

First, Second and Third Worlds can exist in one location. India isn’t all Slumdog Millionaire. It can be divided into three distinct worlds:

1. An underdeveloped agrarian/semi-urban population of approximately 350 million

2. A developing industrial population of 100 million

3. A developed middle class of nearly 400 million

So I’ve just told you why NOT to use “Third World”.

Now, here is why you can:

You can define a country as Third World in terms of oppression by combination of race, class, gender and nation.

Recognising that oppression exists in a country is not implying a particular kind of development or industrialization as the solution. It just confirms that people within this country are struggling for empowerment, whether that be economic, political or spiritual.

According to this definition, Australia could be classed as Third World in about 16 million different ways.

So next time you’re at that party, become a pretentious uni student yourself by quoting this amazing post.

I can picture it now.

“Ya know what,” you drunkenly slur, “Australia is a Third World country in about 16 million ways, and I’m going to tell you why …”

The Truth About Life

All you need to know about life is retained within those four walls. You will notice that one of your personalities is seduced by the illusions of grandeur - the gold packet of king size with a regal insignia, an attractive implication towards glamor and wealth; the subtle suggestion that cigarettes are indeed your royal and loyal friends, and that, Pete, is a lie. Your other personality is trying to draw your attention to the flip side of the discussion, written in boring bold black and white, it's a statement that these neat little soldiers of death are, in fact, trying to kill you and that, Pete, is the truth. Oh, beauty is a beguiling call to death and I'm addicted to the sweet pitch of its siren. That that starts sweet ends bitter, and that which starts bitter ends sweet. That is why you and I love the drugs and that is also why I cannot give that painting back. Now please, pass me a light.

-

Monologue from RocknRolla, directed by Guy Ritchie

"The kaleidoscope world that the law has created and from which the law offers no protection."

I don't want to give an argument for the legalization of drugs.

You've got your own brain.

But this controversial topic is inevitably linked to any discussion of Ben Elton's High Society.

I had no idea who Ben Elton was. I picked up this book in Phnom Penh minutes before a ten hour bus trip because it was either that or New Moon. It looked like a nice, flimsy read. A poor man's Trainspotting, I surmised.

Never judge a book by its cover.

High Society puts forth one main argument.

The legalization of ALL drugs would destroy entire international criminal networks.

I agree that:

1. Traditional drug policy has failed mainstream society. This is why we have homeless junkies, discarded needles and parts of Sydney that you wouldn't let your dog walk alone in. If you legalize all drugs then you can cut out large amounts human trafficking and prostitution, which are fuelled by the illegal drug trade. Drug usage is now safer and out in the open, instead of in a back lane in Redfern.

2. Legalizing drugs would mean that individuals who choose to take drugs are not automatically deemed criminals. In most Western nations, it doesn't matter if you're a forty year old professional who enjoys the occasional toke on a Sunday afternoon, in the eyes of the law, you are a filthy drug user, the same as any heroin junkie.

The restrictions of society can create ugly, poisonous environments. If you thought that Edinburgh in Trainspotting was ugly, take Elton's depiction:

"This is Edinburgh, right? Edinburgh in Britain, forth richest economy on earth, right? Not Beirut, not the Gaza Strip, not fooking Croatia, an' I'm in a flat wi' a man who carries a machine gun. Not only that but the mum comes out next wi' a sawn off! It's Bonnie an' fookin' Clyde except this couple are about as sexy as a dog's arse, sad drug-fooks the both of 'em, but heavily armed sad drug-fooks."

I can hear you already.

But surely if we legalize drugs we will have grandmothers out in the street tripping balls on LSD! Four year olds with lighters and spoons!

Simple rebuttal:

Alcohol is legal. Is everyone an alcoholic? Alcohol has induced just as much, if not more, misery and suffering than heroin and crack combined throughout history.

"I saw this documentary once, it were called the "The Wet House", about the irredeemable winos at the very bottom o' the heap, people for whom recovery was not an option, people with literally rotting limbs, and semi-shut down bodies whose only fully functioning part of their system was their ability to swallow alcohol. Well, do you want to know what the greatest danger these people faced was? These bits of disabled and incapable human wreckage? Other people, that's what. Pissed-up yobs setting 'em on fire for a laugh. True, that's what they faced. The more utterly debased you are the more chance there is of some drunk bastard casually killin' you as he passes by."

But I don't totally agree with the legalization of drugs either.

Not because I think there is any chance of four year-olds shooting up heroin. Because logically the government stands to profit from the legalization of drugs. The implementation of such a law would inevitably involve a shit load of tax. As one of the ministers in Elton's novel puts it, "we could import it at the cost of tea and sell it at the cost of caviar, all at an immense profit to the treasury."

Legalization would also help any government maintain their power. Income tax could be cut in half because of all the money coming from now legal drugs. This means plenty left over to win the next election.

It is a very complex and sensitive argument.

But High Society is a good read whether you agree or disagree with the legalization of drugs. Sometimes I find it hard to remember that you can enjoy a novel without having to get up on your soap box about it.