While a debate on drinking-related violence has just begun in Ireland, in Australia something is finally being done about problem drinking among Aboriginals.
Ten years ago, while looking for work in Sydney, I rang a bar in Surrey Hills whose job ad I had seen. They seemed keen for me to come in for an interview, but said "You know it's an Aboriginal bar, don't you?" I thought this was odd and said that it was no problem for me, I wasn't prejudiced. The woman sighed and said I should have a look at the place first.
I went to the bar the next morning. Everyone in there was already drunk at midday, and a brawl was taking place. I found out that that was the norm. Though feeling sorry for the drinkers, I was disgusted with the bar for being happy to take their money and looked elsewhere for work.
Later that year, while getting a bus from Uluru (Ayers Rock) to Alice Springs, I got talking to three Aboriginal men. When the bus pulled in to the only roadhouse on the route I saw a sign saying that no Aboriginals would be served alcohol there.
I felt gutted that my three companions had to see this until I read the fine print. The ban was imposed at the request of the three local Aboriginal tribes.
A decade on, the Queensland State government, in a bid to wipe-out alcohol-related violence on Cape York peninsula in the far north of the state, has announced that indigenous community councils will be stripped of control of bars known locally as canteens.
The Labor-controlled government is to appoint new boards to control the canteens, reasoning that because the councils run community finances, they have a vested interest in maximising alcohol sales.
State Premier Peter Beattie said that the move was part of a four-year, $14.5 million plan to curb alcohol abuse and its related high rates of illness, violence and sexual abuse.
"This is a choice between supporting alcohol and misery and pain and loss and possible total genocide in some of these communities - or hope.
"We can no longer tolerate the child abuse and abuse of women and damage of alcohol," Mr Beattie said.
The changes have come about in the wake of a report issued last November into alcohol abuse on the Cape by former judge Tony Fitzgerald.
The Fitzgerald report linked alcohol abuse with community violence and health problems that were so bad some communities were no longer viable.
Queensland's Transport Minister, Steve Bredhauer, whose seat of Cook covers Cape York, wept in parliament as he told of how a woman he had met had been beaten up by her alcoholic son. "At 44 years of age, were I an Aboriginal male in a community in Cape York, I would have reached my life expectancy. My peers, my friends on Cape York are dying," he said.
"We can no longer tolerate a situation which goes against humanity. We must find solutions and we must make them work. No more excuses," he said.
Mr Bredhauer also called for community leaders to back the plan. While some dismissed it as paternalistic and racist, most welcomed it.
Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson described the move as a "giant leap of faith".
When it was put to Mr Pearson that some would say people have a right to drink what they want, he said: "You cannot just say that people have a right to drink only. They have a right also to sleep, to safety and to schooling and to be free from violence."
As part of the plans, some unsavoury practices have been banned. Previously, taxi drivers were sometimes used to ferry alcohol into Aboriginal communities. Now pubs and roadhouses near these communities cannot sell to the drivers.
Pub owners have also been banned from having access to customers' bank cards and liquor can no longer be sold in containers of four litres or more.
It is not a simple case of cutting back on avenues of alcohol sales, though. Money will be provided to the communities for more drug and alcohol awareness programmes; sporting organisations are to get extra funding; more community police are being hired; teams to investigate suspected child abuse and neglect are being created in every community on the Cape and more funds are being allocated to economic development.
If no improvements have been made within three years, the Queensland government has reserved the right to ban alcohol sales entirely in some areas. Can you ever imagine something like that happening in Ireland?