Page 581 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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Another highlight of this motorsport themed weekend was the annual rally hall of fame dinner with a special appearance from the one and only former world champion Ari Vatanen from Finland. Ari was a spectacular addition to this dinner and made many appearances over the weekend. He was more than happy to voice his personal enjoyment of Canberra forests and promote the ACT back in his home country. I would like to take this moment to congratulate the 10 new inductees to the hall of fame: Colin Bond, Barry Ferguson, Evan Green, Fred Gocentas, Graham Hoinville, Frank Kilfoyle, David Officer, Kate Officer, Ed Ordynski and Jim Reddiex. I would also like to take this moment to thank Coral Taylor, the executive officer of the hall of fame, and her band of helpers for assisting in making this event possible.
In the short time that I have left, I will go through the Australian rally competitors for the event who were sponsored by East Coast Bullbars: Eli Evans; Glen Weston; Scott Pedder; Dale Moscatt; Brendan Reeves; Rhianon Gelsomino; Michael Boaden; Helen Cheers; Tony Sullens; Julie Barkley; Steven Mackenzie; Brent Mackenzie; Nathan Quinn; David Calder; Guy Tyler; Steve Fisher; Mick Patton, Adrian Coppin and their team, who I have mentioned; Waylon Sims; Jobe Sims; Alan Roe; Ben Searcy; Rhys Pinter; and Jim Gleeson.
Thank you to all who took part. It was a wonderful way of promoting the ACT.
Australia New Zealand Forensic Science Society—seminar
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (6.32): Last week I attended a forensic science seminar at the University of Canberra conducted by the ACT branch of the Australia New Zealand Forensic Science Society. I congratulate the society on hosting the seminar, which featured the work of Dr Jennifer Pilgrim. Dr Pilgrim is a research fellow in the Department of Forensic Medicine at Monash University, and she works at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Dr Pilgrim’s presentation was based upon her study, “King hit fatalities in Australia, 2000-2012,” published last year in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, a well-regarded international journal. The study utilised the Australian and New Zealand national coronial information system, which is a data storage, retrieval, analysis, interpretation and dissemination system that contains data about deaths reported to an Australian coroner from July 2000 and to a New Zealand coroner from July 2007.
In the 12 years studied, 90 fatalities, of which four were female, were identified, with a median age of 33 years. Most cases occurred in New South Wales, followed by Victoria and Queensland, which mirrors the Australian population distribution. Forty-nine cases involved the use of alcohol, 10 cases involved illicit drugs, of which most involved cannabis, and there were three cases involving pharmaceutical drugs.
These figures indicate that, contrary to claims made by the liquor industry, abuse of alcohol is much more strongly linked to violence than other drugs. Alcohol not only increases the risk of aggressive offending but also the risk of victimisation. The perpetrator was unknown to the victim in over a third of these cases.
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