Page 3098 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 9 November 2021
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Harm reduction is evidence-based policy and action taken to reduce the health and social harms resulting from alcohol and drug use that continue to occur. Examples of harm reduction measures include diversion from the criminal justice system to treatment, diversity and accessibility of needle and syringe programs, medically supervised drug consumption facilities, and preventing and responding to overdoses, including increased access to the overdose-reversal drug Naloxone.
ACT governments have led the way in harm reduction measures—for example, with our Australian-first pill testing pilots at music festivals and removing criminal penalties for personal use cannabis possession. We continue to explore and invest in new methods of harm reduction.
Successive ACT budgets have reinforced and highlighted our ongoing commitment to reducing harm from the misuse of alcohol and other drugs, with the 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets increasing access to opioid maintenance treatment on the north side of Canberra and increasing access to lifesaving Naloxone training to reduce the likelihood of overdoses in the community.
We have also made investments to deliver on our Drug Strategy Action Plan and design a much-needed youth mental health and comorbidities service, responding to the need to treat co-occurring mental health and other issues, including alcohol and other drugs.
The 2021-22 budget continues our investment in and commitment to harm reduction, treatment and support, with almost $11 million in additional funding for harm minimisation. This includes $580,000 to expand our needle and syringe program, reducing the impact of blood-borne viruses; $400,000 for a proven harm reduction method, with the development of a service model ACT medically supervised injecting facility, including scoping potential locations; $803,000 to commence design work on the redevelopment of the Watson health precinct to deliver a world-class, community-led alcohol and other drug and mental health treatment precinct for those most in need, including an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled residential rehabilitation service; $260,000 to pilot an Australian-first fixed-site pill testing service, which was not possible during the previous summer while planning, legal and service considerations were being worked through; $7.6 million to continue delivering health services for the Drug and Alcohol Court; and $1 million to respond to the immediate pressures caused by our recent lockdown. These new budget initiatives add to the more than $22 million in annual funding for drug and alcohol treatment and harm reduction services.
As I stated earlier, the ACT leads Australia in harm minimisation and has been guided by the Drug Strategy Action Plan 2018-21, also known as the DSAP, which set out the government’s goals for the three years. Preliminary analysis of the implementation and outcomes of the DSAP indicates that over 90 per cent of actions have been completed or partially completed, all while managing a global pandemic for the last year and a half. This is a credit to our excellent and dedicated public servants, public health officials and, in my opinion, Australia’s best non-government alcohol and drug sector, which has a 92 per cent satisfaction rate.
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