My Last Drink
Edited by Ross Fitzgerald & Neal Price, Connor Court, $29.95
Reviewed by Steven Carroll
A common thread running through these 32 confessions of recovering alcoholics is that they had to reach rock bottom before taking decisive action in rehab and/or AA. Interestingly, their memories of their last drinks vary from the vivid to the vague.
For Ross Fitzgerald it’s crystal clear – he had his last drink in the Melbourne pub where, as a schoolboy, he’d had his first. For Gail, who hid her drinking from most people (including her young …

Grog bans don’t work but the laissez faire is killing us
A former alcoholic looks at possible solutions for Alice Springs’ devastating surge in violence
ROSS FITZGERALD
The longstanding problems resulting from high-risk drinking by a significant minority of First Nations Australians is now not only extremely important but very urgent. But, as debates about the current acute alcohol problems in crime-ridden Alice Springs and elsewhere in the Northern Territory make clear, it’s also very complex.

People often use mood-altering drugs, including alcohol, to dull the terrible pain of childhood memories or current awful …

ROSS FITZGERALD

After months of delay, NSW Opposition leader, Chris Minns, has finally taken some action on pokies reform.
It is welcome news that the ALP in NSW will ban donations to political parties from all clubs in the state that have poker machines.
Although donations from gambling companies are banned, NSW clubs are currently exempt. This is because they are currently classified as not-for-profit entities.
Minns’ other pokie proposals are very weak, demonstrating the power the gambling industry in Australia has over Labor.
For example, it is clear that, unlike Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet, …

ROSS FITZGERALD
Despite some opposition to the move in Liberal circles, given the current political situation Tony Abbott would be an excellent replacement for the much-lamented Jim Molan in the Senate.

Previously a fine major general in the Australian Army, Molan was an extremely capable and straight-shooting conservative Liberal senator for NSW.
Molan’s untimely death has created a five-year upper house vacancy for the Liberals in NSW, which has to be filled by a current member of the Liberal Party.
This important political position will be decided by the 750-member Liberal Party state council.
This …

ROSS FITZGERALD. Professor and author.
For decades, it was an entrenched position of most academics that theAustralian Labor Party was the repository of reformand the Liberals and Nationals a source of reaction.
But in Australia, vital reforms often come from the conservative side of politics.
Think John oward and gun control, and Robert Menzies substantially widening the access to higher education via Commonwealth Scholarships.
Now, we have two Liberal premiers promising to introduce pathbreaking reform.
In Tasmania, Liberal premierJeremy Rockliff led all other states in committing to introduce a mandatory cashless gambling card for every club, …

ROSS FITZGERALD
High-risk gambling and high-risk drinking overlap greatly.
  The distribution of consumption is very similar, with a minority of consumers accounting for most of the demand.Plusthere is a huge over-representation of vulnerable groups in those addicted to gambling and to alcohol.
 The enormous social costs of gambling in Australia are still not fully understood.
 But many studies accurately demonstrate that gambling imposes a heavy burden, especially on low-income groups and some ethnic populations. They and their families not only lose loved ones from suicide but many families and relationships are destroyed by …