I almost cried watching Sixty Minutes on Sunday night as a group of young women boasted about their equal opportunity to get plastered.

They argued – and the tragedy is I think they actually meant it – that now they were working women, making their own money, they had just as much right as every other Aussie male to go out on the town and get blind rotten drunk.

I love it when women talk about ‘great new freedoms’ they have won – like the right to terminate the life of a child, shove their children in childcare while they work endless hours, or worse, just go to the gym.

For those who missed it, the Sixty Minutes piece was on the ‘new’ problem emerging with mums at home becoming alcoholics.

It detailed the story of how one mum drank five to six bottles of wine a day – consumption that experts say does actual physical damage to the brain.

Another older woman, who sounded like she was drunk as she slurred through her interview, was actually already permanently brain-damaged so her speaking was normal.

What was frightening, however, was the argument, from the group of young women that they had every right to get plastered.

It’s a bit like the argument that women have every right to sleep around, because blokes do.

Since when have we as a society come to the conclusion that two wrongs make any right.

Aussie blokes should not be getting plastered, and neither should women.

Take it from me ladies, it’s not a good look when you stagger out of a nightclub or restaurant, slurring your words – just as it is not a good look when beer-swilling blokes with pot bellies stumble home at all hours – and then expect sex from their wives.

They are about as appealing as smokers to kiss – but that’s another story.

On Saturday night, I tagged along as Caroline Hutchinson took a tour of Mooloolaba and Caloundra for the wee hours of the morning.

While, as I reported yesterday, the police presence made a huge impact on Mooloolaba’s feeling of safety, I could not walk away from the experience without wondering whether parents see what some of their daughters wear to these clubs.

One girl walked out with such a low cut top that she left little for the imagination. She got everyone’s attention but little respect.

While it may be politically incorrect to suggest that such attire invites trouble, I’ve never been one for being political correct.

But you don’t have to go out after midnight to find out what I’m talking about.

You only have to go to Sunshine Plaza on a Thursday night to discover it’s not just the shops advertising their goods.

But you can’t go telling women what to wear, you say, that’s infringing on their rights.

Well as a parent, I reckon you certainly can – and should.

Sitting in the barbers at the Plaza certainly enlightens you to what I am talking about.

Three young blokes, well under the weather, came in and started talking about one of the local girls, the daughter of a promiment identity, as being the town bike. Needless to say what she might have been wearing.

Tom's stance against schoolies puzzles me

TOM Hulett seems to have won few friends with his stance against schoolies activities on the Sunshine Coast.

To be honest, I can’t see why he’s so troubled by the event on the Coast.

There’s a huge difference between schoolies on the Sunshine Coast and on the Gold Coast.

The fact that there was not one schoolies-related arrest on the Coast speaks volumes.

But then again, maybe there aren’t that many here after Tom took to the airwaves talking about ending council-sponsored events catering for young school leavers.

One blogger on thedaily.com.au summed it up well: “You must be shattered Tom. None of your scare tactics are working, and the schoolies are not like you keep saying. Next you’ll be pushing for the removal of the caravan park, The Wharf, and any other area where normal people can enjoy themselves, so your elitist friends can have Mooloolaba to themselves.’’

I don’t know about you, but I reckon we are asking for trouble if we don’t put some activities on for schoolies who choose to come here.

If there are not free concerts or beach parties or whatever, some young people will create their own entertainment – and the wider community may not find it as entertaining.

While schoolies are noisy and like to let their hair down, are we so intolerant as oldies that we can’t let them have some fun, within reasonable limits?

We should be far more concerned about the people who believe they have a ‘right’ to get plastered every weekend – and leave their kids at home – or on the street – for someone else to worry about.

They are the real toolies.