Page 2051 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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Tackling the problem of drug abuse is no small task and no-one has all the answers, but Labor is taking the initiative by addressing the problem seriously, with socially responsible plans to extend methadone treatment to all those who need it in an accessible way, regardless of the individual's capacity to pay.
Mrs Carnell: Through three sites. That is really accessible!
MR BERRY: It has never been limited to three sites.
Mrs Carnell: You just said it - Belconnen, City and Tuggeranong.
MR BERRY: She needs to learn to count. Mrs Carnell is also involved in the Drugs Committee with Mr Moore, and for some time she has been paddling this old canoe of farming out the profitable parts of the methadone program to the pharmacists. Indeed, it has been discovered, after close examination and close consideration by me, that this is an inappropriate way to go in a city where we have the luxury of appropriately located health centres - health centres that can be well utilised for the provision of the sorts of methadone services that are necessary for those people who need it. There is no denying that we ought to take advantage of those sorts of services.
The Liberals, on the other hand, would say to us, "Do not utilise those facilities. Let us hand it over to the private sector instead". This is the Hewson approach. We have heard it all before. Mash up the public sector, reduce access, and hand it over to the private sector so that they can make a bob out of it. Leave the government instrumentalities to carry the basket cases and all the very difficult and expensive services that have to be provided for the community.
I think it is a great shame that the Liberals would allow their member to present herself in a way which might demonstrate to the community that she has a conflict of interest. It is a great shame that one of the other Liberals could not have taken up this issue if they were so concerned to increase the business for pharmacies in the ACT. Not one of them, it seems, is as concerned about it as Mrs Carnell - and she ought to be embarrassed. I would blush a little too, if I were her, because it is something to blush about.
Mr Kaine: She is only blushing because of your transparency.
MR BERRY: Mr Kaine supports Mrs Carnell, so Mr Kaine is happy for his Liberal members in this Assembly to seek to procure more for their own businesses. If that is the sort of approach the Leader of the Opposition takes, he is an absolute disgrace to the Territory.
Mr Humphries: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. It seems to me that the suggestion that Mrs Carnell is effectively putting forward a Bill to the Assembly to procure personal advantage for herself and her friends is essentially the same as the allegation earlier tonight in relation to Mr Kaine that there was some sort of pay-off in some vote in this Assembly. I ask you to rule that this inference by the Minister be withdrawn.
MADAM SPEAKER: I was going to say that I did not think the two were the same. The matter has been before the Assembly before.
Mr Humphries: It is no more respectable now than it was before.
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