By Ross Fitzgerald

Although I disagree with the federal Coalition about some key policies, I do support Peter Dutton’s proposed gambling advertising bans.

In particular, I applaud the proposal of stopping all gambling advertising during sporting events in Australia, including half and quarter time breaks, and also from an hour before the start of live sporting events to an hour after such widely watched events.

Hence, I urge prime minister Anthony Albanese and the federal ALP government to work cooperatively with the Coalition and some members of cross-bench, and implement these much-needed policies.

Most …

Final portrait of an artist and old friend

The legendary Australian artist John Olsen with history professor and old friend Ross Fitzgerald. Photo by Tim Olsen.

By ROSS FITZGERALD

A state memorial for my friend, the great Australian artist John Olsen, will be held on May 29 at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney.

Olsen told me last year that he hoped to die like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who on his last day painted his final picture, put down the brushes, sighed and said: “I think I’m beginning to learn something now.”
I …

 
It was  pleasing to read Andrew Horner’s correction of Oscar Humphries’ claim that the family’s choice of Sydney over Melbourne for Barry Humphries State Memorial wasn’t a repudiation of his own hometown. ( ‘Humphries’ request to ‘snub’ Melbourne’, May 13.)
 
As a friend of 61 years, I can attest that it is true that Barry was saddened by the increasingly woke Melbourne Comedy Festival removing his name from the event he co-founded, and disappointed that the Victorian government didn’t intervene.
 
But there is more to the story. In recent years, Barry often …

Barry Humphries and I drank together and got sober together

Ross Fitzgerald and Barry Humphries at Sydney’s Catalina restaurant in 2019. 

Barry Humphries and I were friends for more than 60 years.

We first met at the Notting Hill Hotel, which was the nearest pub to Melbourne’s Monash University where I was then an often drunk student.

Barry and I drank together and got sober together.

In late 1969 we were both admitted to a suburban Melbourne alcoholic and drug addiction hospital called Delmont. The wonderful lead psychiatrist there, Dr John Moon, was a strong …

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 …

The First Labor Government in the World proved a week was a long time in politics
by ROSS FITZGERALD
Queensland has had many political firsts. These include the fact that Australia’s only Communist Party MP, Frederick Woolnough (“Fred”) Paterson, was a two-term member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Widely known throughout Queensland as “The People’s Champion”, Paterson represented the state seat of Bowen for the Communist Party of Australia from 1944 to 1950. This was until his electorate was gerrymandered out of existence by the state Labor government.
On St Patrick’s Day 1948, during …

Unrepresentative Victorian swill
Preference trading corrupts Victorian politics
by ROSS FITZGERALD
The Victorian election promises to deliver one of the most bizarre legislatures that Australia has ever seen. This is due to an electoral system in the Upper House that is so easily manipulated.
Victoria is the only state that persists with a Group Voting Ticket (GVT) – a list of written preferences that parties instruct the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) to adhere to when distributing votes. This system enables micro parties to be elected with less than a few hundred votes. At the …