We live in a culture where a middle-class mother likes her one
glass of red a night, where sporting champions celebrate by
showering each other with magnums of champagne and where
indigenous women in remote places accept excessive drinking as a
way of life. We also live in a nation where our Parliament has
imposed the toughest restrictions in the world on the sale of
tobacco products because they pose an unacceptable public health
risk. Yet there is no mandated labelling on alcohol products
warning pregnant women of the dangers of drinking. During the
Punch and Judy show that passes for Federal Parliament, a
significant report, arguably far more alarming in content than
the discourse over Julia Gillard's not-so-brilliant career as a
junior solicitor, was tabled on Thursday in the House of
Representatives with cursory attention. FASD: The Hidden Harm,
is a report that goes to the heart of our inability as a nation
to face up to the enormous personal damage and financial cost of
boozing, in particular the damag