Mr WOOD - 2016-05-24
In the budget announced today, under Strategic Issues, the government says it will reduce alcohol-related harm through the Alcohol Mandatory Treatment program and other strategies. Recently, in response to criticism about the Alcohol Mandatory Treatment program, the CEO of Health was tasked to find the problems with it. For instance, Coroner Kelvin Currie said police failed to comply with obligations under protective custody laws in relation to the program.
Could you say if part of the problem, which is reflected on the streets of Darwin, is that police have a directive not to take intoxicated people into protective custody but instead take them to sobering-up shelters, thus meaning people avoid being assessed by the independent mandatory alcohol tribunal and therefore avoid being sent to a rehabilitation centre?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, part of the question relates to the Minister for Health. I will answer from the police perspective and if you want more information I will flick it to the minister.
The police have the opportunity to provide a range of solutions to people on our streets, whether that is dropping them at home, at sobering-up shelters or to protective custody in the watch house. Police determine that on the spot.
About two months ago I raised concerns about the process of getting people into AMT. I believed the tribunal was a bit slow and there was a lack of take up. Since those comments were made the Health minister has made changes and we now have a higher uptake in AMT, which is causing considerable change in AMT and its successful enrolment, if I can use that term. That is a good outcome.
Another issue you may be referring to is the number of people living rough in the street, or long grassers. It has been a decade-long issue of concern in the NT. At the moment we are seeing challenges relating, in particular, to the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, a good corporation which is undergoing change.
It is contracted by the federal government to run the Night Patrol program and contracted by us to run the Return to Country program. It is having challenges facilitating those changes, and we are working with it. If everything works out fine, it will continue to operate those programs and will restart. It is currently not working properly. If we cannot make that work we will find a replacement organisation to deal with issues such as Night Patrol and Return to Country.
Return to Country is not working; it is not operating with the company we engaged to provide it. We will work with Larrakia Nation and try to fix it. If we cannnot we will find somebody else.
One of the other challenges we are seeing in the Territory is the influx of Western Australians moving to the Northern Territory.
A couple of months ago, at the same time as when we were engaging Larrakia Nation, it identified to us that it has seen an increase from 1800 to 2500 Western Australian residents who are now using the service. I have had a chat to people in the women’s shelter in Alice Springs who say that, from a domestic violence point of view, 11.6% of their clients are from Western Australia as opposed to 5.1% from South Australia, which I find quite interesting. The anecdotal evidence coming through Alice Springs and Katherine is the same as what we are seeing with Larrakia Nation, which is that a high proportion of Western Australians are moving to the Territory and living rough.
Back to your original question, the answer is no. We do have a challenge with more people on our streets and partly that has to do with the administration of Larrakia Nation – not knocking them. There are opportunities here.
Could you say if part of the problem, which is reflected on the streets of Darwin, is that police have a directive not to take intoxicated people into protective custody but instead take them to sobering-up shelters, thus meaning people avoid being assessed by the independent mandatory alcohol tribunal and therefore avoid being sent to a rehabilitation centre?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, part of the question relates to the Minister for Health. I will answer from the police perspective and if you want more information I will flick it to the minister.
The police have the opportunity to provide a range of solutions to people on our streets, whether that is dropping them at home, at sobering-up shelters or to protective custody in the watch house. Police determine that on the spot.
About two months ago I raised concerns about the process of getting people into AMT. I believed the tribunal was a bit slow and there was a lack of take up. Since those comments were made the Health minister has made changes and we now have a higher uptake in AMT, which is causing considerable change in AMT and its successful enrolment, if I can use that term. That is a good outcome.
Another issue you may be referring to is the number of people living rough in the street, or long grassers. It has been a decade-long issue of concern in the NT. At the moment we are seeing challenges relating, in particular, to the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, a good corporation which is undergoing change.
It is contracted by the federal government to run the Night Patrol program and contracted by us to run the Return to Country program. It is having challenges facilitating those changes, and we are working with it. If everything works out fine, it will continue to operate those programs and will restart. It is currently not working properly. If we cannot make that work we will find a replacement organisation to deal with issues such as Night Patrol and Return to Country.
Return to Country is not working; it is not operating with the company we engaged to provide it. We will work with Larrakia Nation and try to fix it. If we cannnot we will find somebody else.
One of the other challenges we are seeing in the Territory is the influx of Western Australians moving to the Northern Territory.
A couple of months ago, at the same time as when we were engaging Larrakia Nation, it identified to us that it has seen an increase from 1800 to 2500 Western Australian residents who are now using the service. I have had a chat to people in the women’s shelter in Alice Springs who say that, from a domestic violence point of view, 11.6% of their clients are from Western Australia as opposed to 5.1% from South Australia, which I find quite interesting. The anecdotal evidence coming through Alice Springs and Katherine is the same as what we are seeing with Larrakia Nation, which is that a high proportion of Western Australians are moving to the Territory and living rough.
Back to your original question, the answer is no. We do have a challenge with more people on our streets and partly that has to do with the administration of Larrakia Nation – not knocking them. There are opportunities here.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016