While he didn’t drive himself to the event, our state MP did make it to The Inverell Club last Saturday evening.

There, Adam Marshall delivered an impressive toast to Lions International as Bundarra Lions and Macintyre Lions joined for a combined changeover dinner.

But On the Pulse understands that was trumped by an even more impressive few words later in the evening.

Those words came from Bundarra Lions member Garry Cracknell who had a suggestion for the state MP.

Saying it was a change that may assist members of his Lions Club, as well as the MP himself, Garry suggested to Mr Marshall that he introduce a bill to parliament to increase the legal blood alcohol limit while driving to 0.12. 

At that point the historic billiards room erupted with laughter.

But it leads On the Pulse to wonder if such a move would be made retrospective. We watch with interest.

Numbers settle it

On the Pulse noticed Prime Minster Tony Abbott made an egregious remark on July 3, upon the eve of NAIDOC Week, of all weeks, that Australia was more or less unsettled at the time of Britain’s arrival on its shores. 

Thank goodness for mathematics, which On the Pulse found quite instructional considering this comment.

It was a scant 226 years ago when First Fleet settlers arrived, and made their intent clear to colonise what is now Australia. 

Experts put the number of indigenous people at the time of the First Fleet somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people. 

Whatever the number, it was a lot. After all, in about 45,000 years, populations can rise. 

Likewise, it has happened that within those last two plus centuries, additional settlement and births have swelled the population to approximately 23.5 million.

At the last census, about 550,000 respondents declared they were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. Funny those numbers seem to count when it comes to cutting the budget, but historically they didn’t seem relevant to the PM. 

Last time we checked, maths hadn’t changed.  

At the end of the lesson, OTP believes it’s another reason to believe Mr Abbott might be better off sticking to the script.