Founded by Jim Vickers-Willis in the 1970s, Quality of Life OnLine (QLO) - previously called the Quality of Life Association - has been involved now for over 30 years raising awareness on many important social policy issues - from the need to reform our prisons and provide more sex education, to reducing the drug problem in our society. Here is some information on the views expressed and campaigns mounted on these social policy issues:

Prison reform

QLO has supported creating "incentive" in our jails; providing the best education facilities to encourage prisoners to work hard and study hard - with the incentive that, if they gain a Diploma or some other distinction, part of their sentence will be remitted. Get them rehabilitated and out of prison as quickly as possible.

Comprehensive Sexual Education

QLO has also supported the continuing opening up of comprehensive sex education for all ages - emphasising positive, non-repressive, healthy, natural and wholesome ideas and attitudes about human sexuality - aimed to aid adult relationships, reduce teenage suicides, help young ones to build up self-esteem, ease sex crimes and marriage breakdown.

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Reducing Tobacco and Other Drug Usage

Even today the real harm of smoking tobacco has not been revealed - including the harm to unborn children, and to the immune system - making people who smoke more likely to suffer illnesses such as asthma, heart attack, cancer, stroke, etc.

Here are some revealing 2007 facts about this problem:

• 19,000 Australians die each year from smoking related diseases,
• 45,000 young Australians take up smoking each and every year,
• the Australian government earns A$9,000,000,000 tax each year from tobacco - yes, 9 billion dollars.

QLO has urged that all so-called "recreational" drugs should not be allowed to be advertised; they present enough problems without being promoted by advertising. Also they should not be promoted by being banned. Banning them creates a huge profit margin which attracts thousands of people to import and sell them.

QLO advocates the view that all drugs should be legal and controlled - sold through chemist shops at normal shop price PLUS TAX (the tax to be used for saturation anti-drug advertising and education). Immediately, all the drug rings, the pushers in our schools, etc. would vanish - because they would have no profits to keep them going. We are particularly highlighting the fact that the major form of advertising for cigarettes is by means of actors and actresses smoking on screen in films and on the television. Some of these actors and actresses have now admitted they were bribed with huge sums of money, luxury cars, holidays, jewelry, etc.. to do this. These films are still shown every day and night on our television screens-conning our young ones into following the example of their heroes.

Some community agencies have been established in Australia to help people QUIT smoking - whether for themselves, a family member or a friend. Contact details for these agencies are provided in Help to Quit in the right column of this page.

QLO also asks whether industrial hemp (which is not the variety used for making marijuana) has been inappropriately banned from the world for 60 years merely to suit the financial interests of the cotton, plastics and chemical industries. QLO has been promoting the feature film "The Hemp Revolution" which states that we need not cut down any more of our trees because hemp can much more effectively provide all the paper we need - plus so many other products all the way from clothing to building boards, rope and medicine - so that it seems incredible that this crop has been withheld from us for so long. We keep calling for a thorough inquiry regarding this crop which we suspect may be able to change our world from 'petrochemical unsustainable' to 'plant-based sustainable'. Amazingly, we can also get all the fuel we need for our cars from this hemp. So why is it banned?

Click here to listen to Jim talking on 3LO Radio about his campaign against tobacco (4min 30 sec)

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Government's and Pressure Interest Groups

QLO has campaigned for a change in our method of government. Controversial public interest matters such as control of guns and the cutting down of forests should be dealt with by a Standing Committee instead of being made a "political football" to be kicked in the direction desired by the commercial group which gives the biggest election campaign donations.The Standing Committee to be the Members of the Cabinet and the Members of the Shadow Cabinet, with secret voting.

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Government Advertising Campaigns

QLO has also been urging that there should be a Government Ministry of advertising for the public benefit. Such things as telephone box vandalism, racism, drunkenness and even abuse of children could be reduced by specially designed government advertising campaigns.

We feel that the great power of advertising is being used very often against the public interest - and it is time this power was recognized and harnessed to improve our quality of life.