Page 2650 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 October 1992
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I hope that, when Mr Berry has had time to think through his general approach and to apply that principle, he will realise that the most important thing that we can do is to give users of methadone, those with a health problem, the opportunity to make choices, and give them the broadest possible range of choice. Madam Speaker, Professor McMichael said:
Health Development connotes an active participatory approach to achieving better health for all members of the community. This approach emphasises that, not only does good health not come commodity-like off the shelf of the medical care supermarket, but neither does it come, like manna from heaven, from decisions and policies of health authorities and government.
Mrs Grassby did agree with quite large parts of the report. It was with reference to the distribution of methadone that she has acknowledged her disagreement. What the Labor Party is missing in suggesting that the only solution is in line with the Bill that Mr Berry tabled is that that does not provide full choice for individual members. It does not empower those in our society who are most in need of having the opportunity to make their own decisions. Madam Speaker, the committee found that Mr Berry's Bill is a very positive move and that Mrs Carnell's Bill is also a very positive move, and that this Assembly should adopt both of those approaches and allow the people who are on the receiving end of this very difficult situation in their lives to make those choices, because that is what health development and health promotion is about.
Madam Speaker, it would be easy for me to continue and deal with the issues one by one, but members are able to read the recommendations and the report that explains why we have come to the conclusions that we have. In principle, Madam Speaker, it is about empowerment. We have heard the left wing of the Labor Party say again and again that it stands for empowering people. Even as I speak, Madam Speaker, I see Mr Lamont with a flag of the Aboriginal people on his desk. It is a flag that represents what Labor has done and the contribution they have made as a starting point to empowering Aboriginal people. There are others in our society who are also in need, others who have been made scapegoats - - -
Mr Cornwell: Social justice, isn't it, Mr Moore?
MR MOORE: Others are in need of social justice, Mr Cornwell. We have an opportunity here. Instead of looking at control, instead of looking at how we as a government - I am trying to express the sort of thinking that seems to come from Mr Berry - can make decisions about how these people who need and use methadone are likely to run their lives, we should say, "Yes, we will make this available and you can make a choice about your lives". That is what we should be on about and that is the way we can begin to change the ethos. That is the way we can begin to allow people to struggle to be proud of being themselves, to take great steps forward in terms of their own self-concept. You cannot do it by saying, "We will tell you to do this and you can do it, if you want, when you want, provided it is within our rules". Madam Speaker, the most important part of this, I think, from the point of view of the committee as a whole, is to deal with the issue that has required the motion relating to publication of the report.
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