YOU MUST BE J-J-JOKING, MR HOWARD

It was the cool media opportunity for the Prime Minister to tune
into, if not turn on, Australia's youth. Triple J, the radio network
with the biggest youth audience, had Mr Howard on to talk about his
new drug campaign.

But when Mr Howard came to defend his call for parents to have a role
in educating their children about drugs, he started sounding very
much like ... a parent.

He said he didn't pretend that as a parent communication with his
children was always easy.

"But what I'm saying to parents is the more you try and the more you
are able to establish effective communication with your children, the
greater opportunity you will have to get some positive messages
over," Mr Howard said.

When the young interviewer, Peta Donald, suggested a lot of people
who developed drug problems came from troubled families, Mr Howard
said he did not have the "naive view" that you only get drug abuse in
dysfunctional families. It was "plainly ridiculous" to ignore the 90
per cent of people who had parents to talk to.

Mr Howard also chipped Donald for saying "the reality is that people
will use drugs ..."

He shot back: "No, the reality is not, I am sorry, but the reality is
not that people will use drugs."

When Donald asked about shortage in treatment resources, Mr Howard
accused her of throwing up questions based on Opposition "nitpicking".

He contradicted Donald's claim that most experts supported heroin
trials and injecting rooms.

And when she asked about his approach to Greens preferences, Mr
Howard said "you're asking me political questions". Surely her
audience was more interested in what the Government was doing for the
environment "than political bobbing and weaving".