Australians ‘switching off to wowsers’

By Clyde Mooney

Australians are sick of being preached to by anti-alcohol activists, argues political commentator Christian Kerr.

Kerr this week penned a column for The Australian arguing that preventative health is too heavily influenced by ideology rather than hard evidence. He told TheShout that Australians are starting to see through activists' agendas and he forecasted that the 'nanny-state' will become an election issue.

"Australians don't like wowsers," Kerr said. "We are basically a common-sense lot, and don’t like people telling us how to live our lives.

"If Australians feel as though they are being preached to, they either switch off or rebel.

"Public health advocates should remember this, or risk a backlash and people ignoring messages."

AHA (NSW) CEO Paul Nicolaou added: "These groups won't be happy until we are all vegetarians living in solar powered huts drinking nothing but water and eating nothing but tofu."

"Bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy – the perfect example of interest groups trying to justify their existence."