Mr STYLES - 2010-10-27
In the 2010-11 financial year, you plan to spend $114 000 less in Alcohol and Other Drugs services than you did during the previous year. Without proper rehabilitation services, your government cannot be serious about reducing the effects of alcohol abuse in the community. Why did you slash the budget for Alcohol and Other Drugs services at the very moment you are talking about increasing the number of people entering alcohol rehabilitation programs?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from the member opposite. Actually, we have done quite the reverse. Government made a decision in September - announced in September post the May budget - to undertake the most comprehensive alcohol reforms in the Territory’s history, to establish a model that has not been established anywhere in Australia, let alone the world. We boldly announced a new way forward in alcohol reform, which goes to the heart of the problem, tackling the problem drinker rather than tackling the broader community, of which the majority of people are actually doing the right thing. However, there are problem drinkers and there is a cohort.
When the government made the announcement in September, we very clearly said we would fund the roll-out of an ID system Territory-wide. We said we are committed to the $6m investment for funding that roll-out. That was post the May budget so, clearly, the funds are starting to flow now.
Within the existing funding, I have already found approximately $3m. The Commonwealth has announced another couple of million dollars towards funding that roll-out as well. We are working in a partnership with the Commonwealth.
We have also said the mandatory treatment and rehabilitation, and the health interventions required to pack in and around this system will be worth tens of millions of dollars. There is already significant investment in this area. We have already taken rehabilitation and sobering-up shelter beds up to 300. That does not sit in the Alcohol Policy Minister’s budget; that sits in the Department of Health and Families’ Alcohol and Other Drugs budget. We are a policy arm where we actually do the policy integration; we are not the operational arm. You are looking to the wrong budget area to start with, but that is all right, I am happy to give you a brief on that.
In the Alcohol and Other Drugs funding split, there are two layers of funding. One is NT government funding, one is the Commonwealth. We are in active and live negotiations with the Commonwealth about the resources that are occurring in the sector now, and how they best occur going forward to support the new model. The Commonwealth is on board. They are embracing the suggestion we have put forward. We are still in consultation phase; I made that clear during the statement yesterday. We will not finish consultations until mid-November.
Government will then make the final decision so we can write up the legislation through December and January for introduction in the February sittings of parliament; for passage in March, and go live with the new system on 1 July 2011. You would know that if you had read a single fact sheet which has been in the public domain now for over a month. You would know that if you had bothered to go on to the website …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Anytime you want to be briefed, mate, bring it on.
Mr STYLES to MINISTER for ALCOHOL POLICY
In that case, what is the average cost of providing alcohol rehabilitation services to a person suffering from alcohol addiction?
Madam SPEAKER: That is not really a supplementary question, that is an entirely new question. Minister, if you wish, you may respond.
ANSWER
It depends which way you slice it. I made it very clear, we have an early GP health intervention model that we are largely relying on. That is a very different cost structure to a rehabilitation bed structure which, again, is different to an outstation model such as the Mt Theo model. That falls within the Alcohol and Other Drugs section of the Department of Health and Families. There are different cost lists depending on the ambulatory model, which is the GP health intervention model which AMSANT has come out and supported. As they have said, that is the right model. That is different to institutional models such as FORWAARD, CAAPS, CAAPU, Kalano and the like. There are bed costs built in there. That, again, is different to Mt Theo costs. We have all of those broken down.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from the member opposite. Actually, we have done quite the reverse. Government made a decision in September - announced in September post the May budget - to undertake the most comprehensive alcohol reforms in the Territory’s history, to establish a model that has not been established anywhere in Australia, let alone the world. We boldly announced a new way forward in alcohol reform, which goes to the heart of the problem, tackling the problem drinker rather than tackling the broader community, of which the majority of people are actually doing the right thing. However, there are problem drinkers and there is a cohort.
When the government made the announcement in September, we very clearly said we would fund the roll-out of an ID system Territory-wide. We said we are committed to the $6m investment for funding that roll-out. That was post the May budget so, clearly, the funds are starting to flow now.
Within the existing funding, I have already found approximately $3m. The Commonwealth has announced another couple of million dollars towards funding that roll-out as well. We are working in a partnership with the Commonwealth.
We have also said the mandatory treatment and rehabilitation, and the health interventions required to pack in and around this system will be worth tens of millions of dollars. There is already significant investment in this area. We have already taken rehabilitation and sobering-up shelter beds up to 300. That does not sit in the Alcohol Policy Minister’s budget; that sits in the Department of Health and Families’ Alcohol and Other Drugs budget. We are a policy arm where we actually do the policy integration; we are not the operational arm. You are looking to the wrong budget area to start with, but that is all right, I am happy to give you a brief on that.
In the Alcohol and Other Drugs funding split, there are two layers of funding. One is NT government funding, one is the Commonwealth. We are in active and live negotiations with the Commonwealth about the resources that are occurring in the sector now, and how they best occur going forward to support the new model. The Commonwealth is on board. They are embracing the suggestion we have put forward. We are still in consultation phase; I made that clear during the statement yesterday. We will not finish consultations until mid-November.
Government will then make the final decision so we can write up the legislation through December and January for introduction in the February sittings of parliament; for passage in March, and go live with the new system on 1 July 2011. You would know that if you had read a single fact sheet which has been in the public domain now for over a month. You would know that if you had bothered to go on to the website …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Anytime you want to be briefed, mate, bring it on.
Supplementary Question
Alcohol and Other Drugs Services – Reduction in Funding
Alcohol and Other Drugs Services – Reduction in Funding
Mr STYLES to MINISTER for ALCOHOL POLICY
In that case, what is the average cost of providing alcohol rehabilitation services to a person suffering from alcohol addiction?
Madam SPEAKER: That is not really a supplementary question, that is an entirely new question. Minister, if you wish, you may respond.
ANSWER
It depends which way you slice it. I made it very clear, we have an early GP health intervention model that we are largely relying on. That is a very different cost structure to a rehabilitation bed structure which, again, is different to an outstation model such as the Mt Theo model. That falls within the Alcohol and Other Drugs section of the Department of Health and Families. There are different cost lists depending on the ambulatory model, which is the GP health intervention model which AMSANT has come out and supported. As they have said, that is the right model. That is different to institutional models such as FORWAARD, CAAPS, CAAPU, Kalano and the like. There are bed costs built in there. That, again, is different to Mt Theo costs. We have all of those broken down.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016