Mr STIRLING - 2000-08-15
Last week on ABC radio he followed his leader’s line, playing down the drug problem and saying: ‘There has been no major increase in drug-related crime’. In Darwin over the last 12 months the number of needles dispensed through the free clinic has increased by 30%, to 460 000 needles. In Alice Springs the number has more than doubled, from 14 000 to 30 500 needles. The increase in drugs has clearly flowed through to drug-related crime. Just last Sunday, three people in a Casuarina pharmacy were terrified when they were threatened by a man with a blood-filled syringe demanding drugs. Does the minister now support his boss’s backflip, or will he stand here in the face of these statistics and tell us again that when it comes to drug-related crime, we do not have a problem?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker,this is classic Labor. Indeed, it is classic Syd. The member for Nhulunbuy makes the immediate assumption that because there are more needles being sourced from the clinics, there are more users. That may not be the case. It could be expanded use. It could be, of course, new people coming into the system. But why does he relate that immediately to crime levels? Why does he make assumptions?
This is supposed to be a fair-minded man who wants one day to be minister for police. He sees the statistics but he doesn’t evaluate the information that comes forward in them. Instead he makes certain assumptions that would benefit him and his party - nothing to do with fact, and nothing to do with portraying to Territorians the circumstances that exist and the hard work that the police do.
Let us look at a couple of the facts. First of all, as I indicated to the Leader of the Opposition last week, the Drug Squad has been increased from 28 to 37. The budget for Police, Fire and Emergency Services has been increased since 1995 by over 46%. Equipment levels have been substantially improved: radio communications, aircraft, computer systems, occupational health and safety equipment and firearms for police. The construction of the forensic laboratory is about to commence.
In addition to those resource matters, 150 extra police are going to be on the beat. There is the legislative action that we’ve taken in terms of mandatory sentencing - a tough stance on crime. We introduced the best DNA legislation in the country. The Leader of the Opposition doesn’t like to hear it, but nonetheless she is going to have to suffer the pain of being advised what the circumstances are.
While we are on the drug problem, I say this. The honourable Leader of the Opposition yesterday said to the Police Association: ‘The Northern Territory government has a methadone program.’ Here is a challenge to the Leader of the Opposition. As soon as you are out of Question Time, take the media down to the methadone clinic where a drug addict can walk in off the street and get a taxpayer-funded dose of methadone to maintain their drug addiction. No methadone clinics exist in the Northern Territory. The police see through that direct misrepresentation of the facts, of course. The only one who doesn’t understand when the Leader of the Opposition makes these flippant remarks is herself.
The guidelines set by Cabinet in 1996 permit the prescription and administration of methadone for treatment of opiate and intravenous drug users in particular situations. These are very tough guidelines, applied by the Department of Health. But as for methadone clinics, if the Leader of the Opposition has ever been to one interstate she will understand that we do not have them in the Northern Territory. She will understand that the taxpayers in the Northern Territory do not and will not fund the sustenance of a drug addiction by the provision of methadone at the expense of the taxpayer.
The nonsense that the honourable member purveys is just that. Extrapolating from the fact that there is an increase in the allocation of needles through the needle replacement program is just arrant nonsense. It demonstrates the desperate circumstances that the members opposite find themselves in.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order on both sides! All right, I am just going to wait. We will just while away Question Time. Let us have some silence.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker,this is classic Labor. Indeed, it is classic Syd. The member for Nhulunbuy makes the immediate assumption that because there are more needles being sourced from the clinics, there are more users. That may not be the case. It could be expanded use. It could be, of course, new people coming into the system. But why does he relate that immediately to crime levels? Why does he make assumptions?
This is supposed to be a fair-minded man who wants one day to be minister for police. He sees the statistics but he doesn’t evaluate the information that comes forward in them. Instead he makes certain assumptions that would benefit him and his party - nothing to do with fact, and nothing to do with portraying to Territorians the circumstances that exist and the hard work that the police do.
Let us look at a couple of the facts. First of all, as I indicated to the Leader of the Opposition last week, the Drug Squad has been increased from 28 to 37. The budget for Police, Fire and Emergency Services has been increased since 1995 by over 46%. Equipment levels have been substantially improved: radio communications, aircraft, computer systems, occupational health and safety equipment and firearms for police. The construction of the forensic laboratory is about to commence.
In addition to those resource matters, 150 extra police are going to be on the beat. There is the legislative action that we’ve taken in terms of mandatory sentencing - a tough stance on crime. We introduced the best DNA legislation in the country. The Leader of the Opposition doesn’t like to hear it, but nonetheless she is going to have to suffer the pain of being advised what the circumstances are.
While we are on the drug problem, I say this. The honourable Leader of the Opposition yesterday said to the Police Association: ‘The Northern Territory government has a methadone program.’ Here is a challenge to the Leader of the Opposition. As soon as you are out of Question Time, take the media down to the methadone clinic where a drug addict can walk in off the street and get a taxpayer-funded dose of methadone to maintain their drug addiction. No methadone clinics exist in the Northern Territory. The police see through that direct misrepresentation of the facts, of course. The only one who doesn’t understand when the Leader of the Opposition makes these flippant remarks is herself.
The guidelines set by Cabinet in 1996 permit the prescription and administration of methadone for treatment of opiate and intravenous drug users in particular situations. These are very tough guidelines, applied by the Department of Health. But as for methadone clinics, if the Leader of the Opposition has ever been to one interstate she will understand that we do not have them in the Northern Territory. She will understand that the taxpayers in the Northern Territory do not and will not fund the sustenance of a drug addiction by the provision of methadone at the expense of the taxpayer.
The nonsense that the honourable member purveys is just that. Extrapolating from the fact that there is an increase in the allocation of needles through the needle replacement program is just arrant nonsense. It demonstrates the desperate circumstances that the members opposite find themselves in.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order on both sides! All right, I am just going to wait. We will just while away Question Time. Let us have some silence.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016