The mechanic made the 750-mile trip to Trundle (population 370), to attend a Bachelors-and-Spinsters ball — a black-tie rite of passage for Australia’s rural youth.

“This is my 44th B&S and I’m going to drink as much as I can before I fall over,” said Dalfer, 23, who otherwise downs a couple of beers a week. “I’m here to have a good time.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is cracking down on the binge drinking showcased at events such as the ball. Last week, he announced a A$53.5 million (US$50 million) campaign to reform Australia’s young binge drinkers, 168,000 of whom risk brain damage and liver disease each year. Alcohol costs Asia’s fifth-biggest economy A$15.3 billion annually in workplace absenteeism and health care and accounts for 40 percent of all police work, according to the Canberra-based Alcohol and Other Drugs Foundation.

“Scaring the living daylights out of young people about the health impact of binge drinking in terms of brain damage might just do some good,” Rudd, 50, told reporters in Canberra.

Rudd, the father of a teenage son, says he wants to smash Australia’s “drinking culture.” He’s pledged to cut funding to sports clubs that abuse alcohol, launch programs to promote responsible drinking among teenagers and pay for a A$20 million national advertising blitz.

National Exposure

The prime minister said he was not a “saint” when asked at the press conference last week about his own binge at the New York strip club Scores in 2003. Rudd, who was representing his country at the United Nations in 2003, said he couldn’t remember going to Scores because he had had too much to drink.

Following Rudd’s initiative, Australian football, cricket, rugby and netball clubs said they’d adopt codes of conduct to moderate drinking. The nation’s sporting stars will also appear in advertising campaigns warning against drinking to excess.

“It’s a problem for all of society and as sport touches a lot of Australians in one form or another, we want to be part of the solution,” Australian Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer John O’Neill said after meeting Rudd in Canberra on March 14.

Drinking and stories about alcohol consumption have come to dominate youth culture in Australia.

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