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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3603 ..

Mr Berry: I was not a Minister.

MRS CARNELL: Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish! Mr Berry is the first one to suggest it is my fault when people hang up signs in Canberra. He said he was not responsible for a budget decision under his Government. Heavens! He has the audacity to come in here and demand that this Government increase spending on rehabilitation services. What a joke!

I referred earlier to the need to evaluate ACT drug strategies before we race headlong into new expenditure proposals. Mr Berry has been speaking a lot about rehabilitation programs, but again he has not looked at the facts. He has not looked at what is working and what is not working, or where we can get the best value for our dollars. There is no doubt that Karralika does a wonderful job - Mr Berry was speaking about that earlier - but I think it is important to look at the statistics. During 1996-97 approximately 156 clients were admitted to Karralika, which offers long-term rehabilitation of approximately 10 months. Half left the program in the first two weeks; that is, 50 per cent were out after 14 days. The number of clients who progressed through the three phases of the rehabilitation program was 26 per cent of the total number that were admitted; in other words, one in four.

I have visited Karralika. I want to commend the program for the excellent work it does, but it does that work at substantial cost. We have to ask, even though this program clearly works for some drug users. What happens to the other 75 per cent? The same applies to Mancare. If we are looking at simplistic results, or simplistic outlooks, you can just look across the room at Mr Berry. It is very simple, Mr Speaker, to come up with the lines Mr Berry has come up with; yes, prohibition works for most people; yes, let us get back to rehabilitation. But let us, first and foremost, look at where we are getting the best bang for our buck. Let us look at making sure that there is a whole range of choices for people who have a drug problem in our community. Let us make sure that the education that we put out there to schools is not along the lines that Mr Berry and, I have to say, Mr Howard believe are the appropriate approach. I think Mr Berry even has it in his motion. He says that we really should be looking at eliminating drug use fully. Yes, that would be lovely, but it simply is not a reality.

I think it is really important to look at what Mr Berry has said in the Assembly and what Mr Howard said in his speech, and you will see the similarity, Mr Speaker. It is actually the same statement. They are the same words. So how Mr Berry can get up and put a motion in this place condemning Mr Howard for saying the same thing that he said is an absolute mystery. Hansard, at page 2766 on 2 September, reported Mr Berry as saying this:

The Labor Party has called upon the Government to do more in relation to rehabilitation and it has called upon the Government to do more in relation to education. I have been critical of both Mr Moore and the Government in relation to the constant debate about the heroin trial and those sorts of things without sufficient emphasis being placed on other matters.

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