Mr GUNNER - 2012-10-24
There are 2500 problem drunks. Your Katherine rehabilitation facility will have capacity for 400 people. What will you do with the other 2100 problem drunks?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the first thing, as I indicated a number of times, is that we are taking a different approach. We will start to see a change - unlike the former approach which did not hold people responsible or care enough to intervene at the point where people have the capacity to, hopefully, make a better decision and perhaps take a different course which may have them involved in the community rather than constantly being recipients of programs.
You are stuck in a view in which you think people are not responsible, that programs are put in place based on substance and holding people exempt from responsibility. It is not the approach we will be taking. No, we are not the Labor Party. We will shift our focus and have a policy that fixes on people themselves and builds their capacity by, first, reminding them there are community standards then, second, giving them the capacity to make a different decision and take a different course.
The result will be ...
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113, relevance. What will you do with the other 2100 problem drunks?
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, if you could get to the point.
Mr MILLS: Yes, the point is you are stuck on the number. Your thinking is based on the idea that there was a scheme that was working and that those, 25 ... How many?
Mr Henderson: 2500.
Mr MILLS: Yes, 2500 were somehow receiving some kind of program that was fixing a problem. It was not. Yet the crime statistics are quite plain. It was not working. We will take a different approach and that number will receive a different approach we will hopefully see ...
Mr Gunner: Immediately?
Mr MILLS: Yes we are changing direction immediately.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the first thing, as I indicated a number of times, is that we are taking a different approach. We will start to see a change - unlike the former approach which did not hold people responsible or care enough to intervene at the point where people have the capacity to, hopefully, make a better decision and perhaps take a different course which may have them involved in the community rather than constantly being recipients of programs.
You are stuck in a view in which you think people are not responsible, that programs are put in place based on substance and holding people exempt from responsibility. It is not the approach we will be taking. No, we are not the Labor Party. We will shift our focus and have a policy that fixes on people themselves and builds their capacity by, first, reminding them there are community standards then, second, giving them the capacity to make a different decision and take a different course.
The result will be ...
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113, relevance. What will you do with the other 2100 problem drunks?
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, if you could get to the point.
Mr MILLS: Yes, the point is you are stuck on the number. Your thinking is based on the idea that there was a scheme that was working and that those, 25 ... How many?
Mr Henderson: 2500.
Mr MILLS: Yes, 2500 were somehow receiving some kind of program that was fixing a problem. It was not. Yet the crime statistics are quite plain. It was not working. We will take a different approach and that number will receive a different approach we will hopefully see ...
Mr Gunner: Immediately?
Mr MILLS: Yes we are changing direction immediately.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016