Mr WOOD - 2006-08-29
My question is about ANSTI, a non-government body at Bees Creek that has been dealing with alcohol and drug dependence for approximately the last 20 years. Have you stopped quarterly funding to ANSTI? Do you intend to close ANSTI down by September and, if so, why? Have any people from your department attended meetings at ANSTI? If all this is true, what is going to happen to the 10 or so residents living at ANSTI?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. I know he and other people in the rural area have had many years of commitment to ANSTI. I share that commitment to the provision of a good quality rehabilitation and, withdrawal service, plus a residential service.
Sadly, in recent years, ANSTI has not really provided an adequate service. It got to the point in the sector where people stopped referring potential clients to ANSTI, such was the inadequacy of that service.
My department has worked tirelessly to try to work with ANSTI in the provision of best practice service. We have funded ANSTI with $180 000 through the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program, as well as $232 000 for the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, SAAP; in total, around $420 000 per annum. The services provided long-term rehabilitation for people dependent on alcohol, or suffering long-term alcohol-related conditions. Funding through SAAP is provided to ANSTI to assist individuals and families experiencing social hardship and homelessness, with supported accommodation on a crisis to medium-term and case management service.
Member for Nelson, it has not been happening in accordance with the service agreement. There has been little to no case management, and there certainly has not been crisis to medium-term accommodation there. What we have seen is long term accommodation of some nine clients. They have been there for a few years now, and they are not being case managed. They are not being supported through the service as they should be.
I have met personally with representatives of the ANSTI board and discussed the government’s concerns. Very senior officials of the agency have met with members of the board. They have attempted on many occasions to meet with the manager of ANSTI. ANSTI was the only SAAP-funded service in the Territory that refused to cooperate with an audit of all our SAAP-funded services. They just would not be audited. Every other SAAP-funded service in the Territory agreed to the audit.
It did not fill me with any pleasure to move to defund ANSTI, because ANSTI is a fantastic facility with enormous potential. However, as minister, I could not continue to allow $420 000 of taxpayers’ dollars going to a service that essentially was not delivering what it was signed up to deliver.
The Department of Health and Community Services is absolutely committed to supporting ANSTI through its wind-up process, and that is occurring currently. They are working together, and I have to pay absolute credit to the current ANSTI board. They are working cooperatively with my agency through this transition process, on a transition plan to ensure that a continuity of services to the few clients that they have there is met. The transition plan will ensure that assets purchased with Department of Health and Community Services’ funds are transferred to any proposed new provider or the Northern Territory government.
There are nine clients for whom the department is individually assessing the most appropriate alternatives with other providers. The department will continue to individually case manage these nine clients to ensure their needs are met. It is my fervent hope that in the future we will see a terrific service operating out of what we have known as the ANSTI facility.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. I know he and other people in the rural area have had many years of commitment to ANSTI. I share that commitment to the provision of a good quality rehabilitation and, withdrawal service, plus a residential service.
Sadly, in recent years, ANSTI has not really provided an adequate service. It got to the point in the sector where people stopped referring potential clients to ANSTI, such was the inadequacy of that service.
My department has worked tirelessly to try to work with ANSTI in the provision of best practice service. We have funded ANSTI with $180 000 through the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program, as well as $232 000 for the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, SAAP; in total, around $420 000 per annum. The services provided long-term rehabilitation for people dependent on alcohol, or suffering long-term alcohol-related conditions. Funding through SAAP is provided to ANSTI to assist individuals and families experiencing social hardship and homelessness, with supported accommodation on a crisis to medium-term and case management service.
Member for Nelson, it has not been happening in accordance with the service agreement. There has been little to no case management, and there certainly has not been crisis to medium-term accommodation there. What we have seen is long term accommodation of some nine clients. They have been there for a few years now, and they are not being case managed. They are not being supported through the service as they should be.
I have met personally with representatives of the ANSTI board and discussed the government’s concerns. Very senior officials of the agency have met with members of the board. They have attempted on many occasions to meet with the manager of ANSTI. ANSTI was the only SAAP-funded service in the Territory that refused to cooperate with an audit of all our SAAP-funded services. They just would not be audited. Every other SAAP-funded service in the Territory agreed to the audit.
It did not fill me with any pleasure to move to defund ANSTI, because ANSTI is a fantastic facility with enormous potential. However, as minister, I could not continue to allow $420 000 of taxpayers’ dollars going to a service that essentially was not delivering what it was signed up to deliver.
The Department of Health and Community Services is absolutely committed to supporting ANSTI through its wind-up process, and that is occurring currently. They are working together, and I have to pay absolute credit to the current ANSTI board. They are working cooperatively with my agency through this transition process, on a transition plan to ensure that a continuity of services to the few clients that they have there is met. The transition plan will ensure that assets purchased with Department of Health and Community Services’ funds are transferred to any proposed new provider or the Northern Territory government.
There are nine clients for whom the department is individually assessing the most appropriate alternatives with other providers. The department will continue to individually case manage these nine clients to ensure their needs are met. It is my fervent hope that in the future we will see a terrific service operating out of what we have known as the ANSTI facility.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016