Ms CARNEY - 2005-08-16
You made it clear in your earlier answer that the law designed and introduced by Labor to protect petrol sniffers is on hold because you are having the regulations sorted out. Your predecessor said:
Why did your government promote and insist on pursuing a model that simply was not ready, and is not ready, to do what it was claimed that it could do, or was it the case that the petrol sniffing legislation, as it is known, was simply part of a pre-election gimmick?
ANSWER
Leader of the Opposition, yet again, you have it wrong. The legislation was no stunt. It is a clear intent and direction from government to protect people from the scourge of petrol sniffing; to empower people at the community to remove petrol from the sniffers – clear intent, articulated, debated at length in this parliament and passed. At that stage, we went through lengthy debate, and I can recall some of your contribution about the importance of the regulations to underpin the legislation.
You cannot have a successful action on petrol sniffing if you impose from top down if, as a government, we sit here in this Chamber and say, ‘it shall be thus’. To succeed, you actually have to work with the communities who are struggling with petrol sniffing. That is the point of the regulations process. It is about identifying clearly, community by community, who is involved, who are the authorised persons and where the safe houses are.
Ms Carney: You did not have then in place when you issued your press releases.
Ms LAWRIE: You are mumbling about it, but it is sometimes useful to listen.
As I said in a report this morning, work is already occurring. We are spending $2m this financial year to implement rehabilitation and treatment around petrol sniffing. I will spend the time to take you back through some of that, because it does not appear that you actually listened this morning.
The $2m is spent this year to provide a range of options for families, communities, police and other agencies to respond when people are at risk of serious harm from sniffing. This is work that is being done, okay? The options include: remote outstations; rehabilitation facilities in Alice Springs and Darwin; and, nursing positions to provide clinical support to outstations. As I mentioned this morning, tenders have gone out for the rehabilitation service in Alice Springs and Darwin. Already, we are funding at Ipolera and Ilpurle, who are receiving $25 000 each in ongoing support. That is happening now. There are petrol sniffers in those treatment programs now.
In addition to this, court order clients are able to go to Mt Theo outstation when they need the required standards of care. Kintore is being funded for a worker to assist the community plan and implement an outstation service. Funding of $98 000 is committed to assist with infrastructure development for this.
This financial year, $40 000 is being spent on a practical information package about the legislation, to explain that legislation to magistrates, prosecutors, defenders and for the general information of the public. I will make sure I send you a pack.
- One of the things that we do not want to do is to have a system that is going to be overly bureaucratic and work against what we are trying to do here; that is, to get someone into treatment.
Why did your government promote and insist on pursuing a model that simply was not ready, and is not ready, to do what it was claimed that it could do, or was it the case that the petrol sniffing legislation, as it is known, was simply part of a pre-election gimmick?
ANSWER
Leader of the Opposition, yet again, you have it wrong. The legislation was no stunt. It is a clear intent and direction from government to protect people from the scourge of petrol sniffing; to empower people at the community to remove petrol from the sniffers – clear intent, articulated, debated at length in this parliament and passed. At that stage, we went through lengthy debate, and I can recall some of your contribution about the importance of the regulations to underpin the legislation.
You cannot have a successful action on petrol sniffing if you impose from top down if, as a government, we sit here in this Chamber and say, ‘it shall be thus’. To succeed, you actually have to work with the communities who are struggling with petrol sniffing. That is the point of the regulations process. It is about identifying clearly, community by community, who is involved, who are the authorised persons and where the safe houses are.
Ms Carney: You did not have then in place when you issued your press releases.
Ms LAWRIE: You are mumbling about it, but it is sometimes useful to listen.
As I said in a report this morning, work is already occurring. We are spending $2m this financial year to implement rehabilitation and treatment around petrol sniffing. I will spend the time to take you back through some of that, because it does not appear that you actually listened this morning.
The $2m is spent this year to provide a range of options for families, communities, police and other agencies to respond when people are at risk of serious harm from sniffing. This is work that is being done, okay? The options include: remote outstations; rehabilitation facilities in Alice Springs and Darwin; and, nursing positions to provide clinical support to outstations. As I mentioned this morning, tenders have gone out for the rehabilitation service in Alice Springs and Darwin. Already, we are funding at Ipolera and Ilpurle, who are receiving $25 000 each in ongoing support. That is happening now. There are petrol sniffers in those treatment programs now.
In addition to this, court order clients are able to go to Mt Theo outstation when they need the required standards of care. Kintore is being funded for a worker to assist the community plan and implement an outstation service. Funding of $98 000 is committed to assist with infrastructure development for this.
This financial year, $40 000 is being spent on a practical information package about the legislation, to explain that legislation to magistrates, prosecutors, defenders and for the general information of the public. I will make sure I send you a pack.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016