Page 2748 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 October 1992
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DRUGS - SELECT COMMITTEE
Report on Methadone Treatment Services
Debate resumed from 15 October 1992, on motion by Mr Moore:
That the report be noted.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (4.03): On 15 October the Select Committee on Drugs handed down to this Assembly its findings on proposed amendments to the methadone program. I wish to comment on remarks that were made by Mr Moore about Mrs Grassby's dissenting report. Madam Speaker, I consider that those remarks were - - -
Mr Moore: Eminently fair.
MR BERRY: I think they were intemperate and uncalled for.
Mr Moore: Intemperate, yes; uncalled for, no.
MR BERRY: Mr Moore has the right to be upset about disagreements with reports which he has put a lot of work into, but so too have other members who have submitted dissenting reports put in a lot of work. Having drawn attention to that, I move on. The Government has given consideration to the recommendations of the report, and I will now provide a response to its findings.
The select committee interim report covers two main areas - expansion of methadone service, through privatisation of services, and recommended changes to the ACT methadone treatment program. Most of the recommendations the committee make concern the further expansion of methadone treatment services into the private sector. In other words, the committee seems more concerned with improving the profitability of pharmacies rather than improving the system of methadone distribution in a well-regulated environment. While the select committee proposes that methadone treatment should be available from community pharmacies, general practitioner surgeries and private clinics as well as government facilities such as health centres, it pays scant regard to the need for such a program to be viable and ignores the financial impact the proposed privatisation will have on the provision of these services.
The Government's proposal to expand methadone treatment services into health centres is by far the most effective option for meeting the increased demands for methadone treatment. It is not open slather, as Mr Moore's approach would be. This proposal will not only improve - - -
Mr De Domenico: On a point of order: Mr Deputy Speaker, Mr Berry by his remarks cast aspersions on the bona fides of the committee. He said that the committee went out of its way to ensure that pharmacists made a profit. I think that is a slur on the committee, and I ask Mr Berry to withdraw that allegation.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Berry, did you make that statement?
MR BERRY: What was that?
Mr Humphries: The one Mr De Domenico just referred to. You were listening to it.
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