Ted Wilkes, an Aboriginal leader on drug and alcohol issues in Australia, told an inquest that authorities need to do more to regulate alcohol sales across the Kimberley region, including allowing more Aboriginal people to run liquor outlets. Wilkes believes this could help Aboriginal people find a pathway out of poverty. The inquest is examining 13 suicides of young Aboriginal people and will consider the role of suicide contagion and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in the Kimberley. Wilkes questions the effectiveness of dry communities and expresses concern about cashless welfare cards.

1. From: Elspeth Ross rosse@ncf.ca [FASD-Canadian-News] FASD-Canadian-News@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FASD-Canadian-News] Call to tighten Aboriginal booze sales
Date: June 29, 2017 at 11:49 AM
To: FASD-Canadian-News@yahoogroups.com
Australia "...authorities need to do more to regulate the sale of booze across the region — including
letting more indigenous people run liquor outlets...."
"...The inquest into the 13 deaths will consider the phenomenon of suicide 'contagion' among young
people from similar geographical and social backgrounds, including among individual families. It will
also explore the impact of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in the Kimberley."
28 Jun 2017
The West Australian
Tim Clarke
Call to tighten Aboriginal booze sales
One of Australia’s leading indigenous voices on the effect of drugs and alcohol on Aboriginal people has
told an inquest into the suicides of 13 young Kimberley people that authorities need to do more to
regulate the sale of booze across the region — including letting more indigenous people run liquor
outlets. Ted Wilkes said Aboriginal people must to find a pathway out of poverty.
Ted Wilkes, leader of the Aboriginal research program at the National Drug Research Institute at
Curtin University, was the second witness at the inquest in Perth yesterday.
In an impassioned plea, Professor Wilkes said the time had come for Aboriginal people to be trusted to
find their own “pathway out of poverty”. He said that included stricter policing of the sale of alcohol
across the Kimberley, including a possible floor price on wine and a reduction in the number of liquor
stores.
Professor Wilkes said that in his experience, drugs and alcohol were not the underlying causes of
suicides. “Alcohol and drugs are not the real reasons,” he said. “It must be a very hard thing to do, to
take your own life. Young kids are using alcohol to escape from something horrific that has happened to
them.”
Professor Wilkes also questioned the effectiveness of dry communities, saying the practice of “sly
grogging” was still rife.
He was “nervous” about the rollout of cashless welfare cards.
When asked whether he believed the 60 per cent ownership of a Fitzroy Crossing pub by an Aboriginal
corporation was a problem, he said it might be the start of a solution to ending the rampant abuse of
alcohol in the region.
“It has not worked too well with non-Aboriginal owners,” Professor Wilkes said.
The inquest into the 13 deaths will consider the phenomenon of suicide “contagion” among young
people from similar geographical and social backgrounds, including among individual families.
It will also explore the impact of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in the Kimberley.
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Posted by: Elspeth Ross <rosse@ncf.ca>
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