Out of control parties are a scourge in this city. The Government has tabled new legislation to crack down on the problem. Part of it involves punishing the party holders if things get out of hand.

Under the proposed laws, a person who organises a gathering of 12 people - at which two people break the law - could face a year in jail or a $12,000 fine and an additional penalty of paying back the cost of police resources.

Not surprisingly the Civil Liberties Council of WA has deemed the laws overkill. I have to agree with them.

I can see what the politicians are trying to do with these laws. They're trying a "prevention is better than the cure" approach. But it places the onus on the people who throw the parties when they can have little control over their guests' actions. Surely many of these people are mortified when things start to go pear-shaped on the night, and often try to stop the situation from escalating. So for them to be fined or even imprisoned afterwards seems very unjust. Then there's the fact that so much of the damage is done by revelers who haven't even been invited ...

The whole situation reminds me of that famous NRA slogan: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." You could say: "Party throwers don't trash the neighbourhood. Party crashers trash the neighbourhood."

If politicians want to sheet home blame to one central source then if anything it should be Facebook. That seems to be one of the main reasons why these shindigs often get so big and unruly. And not just here in Perth. Take this recent, enormously destructive event that was held the Netherlands, for example. The sheer scale of the damage it caused dwarfs anything that's happened in this city.