A new report into the impact of petrol sniffing has revealed that it is costing Australia A$79 million a year but providing unsniffable fuel across the Australia’s central regions would save A$27 million.
Source:
AAP
14 Mar 2006 - 12:00 AM  UPDATED 24 Feb 2015 - 12:14 PM

Compiled by Access Economics, the report was commissioned by property developer Global Property Trust and indigenous groups.

It found that two-thirds of female fuel-sniffers have sexually transmitted diseases and that 73 per cent of adult with disabilities in the Western Desert lands were linked with petrol sniffing.

Uniting under the banner of the Opal Alliance, the groups have called for a broad-scale rollout of unsniffable Opal fuel.

Opal has very low levels of the aromatics which provide sniffers with a high but it costs more and is subsidised by the federal government at 33 cents a litre.

The government has rationed the rollout of Opal fuel, making some communities eligible and others not.

Vicki Gillick, from the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council, said piecemeal rollout of the fuel could make the problem worse, creating a black market where traffickers were selling 1.5 litres of petrol for up to A$70.

She said petrol was exchanged for sexual favours with young women and was sold by unscrupulous people at incredibly high prices.

"What's the point of having Opal in a ring around the area, when in the middle you have a great big hole which is Alice Springs, which the fuel will leak out of into communities as it does at the moment, as cannabis and other drugs do and as grog does?" she said.