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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3625 ..

MR BERRY: I notice that during the debate Mrs Carnell made a great point about the ACT spending more than any State on rehabilitation and other services for drug and alcohol issues. Mrs Carnell, we also spend more than any State, on average, on the running of our hospitals; but that does not make them better. We spend, on average, $600 more per patient than any other place in Australia, but that does not make them any better. Mrs Carnell puts forward this silly notion that, if you pay more, the services are better. The fact of the matter is that, under the Liberals opposite, there has been a savage increase in injecting drug use in the ACT, on the records that I have seen, and they have to take responsibility for that because they did not address the issue as they should have.

My policies remain the same. I remain critical of you on that score because you have performed badly. As I have said before in this debate, Labor's performance is unparalleled when it comes to the issue of providing services for people who are having problems with drugs. Let us not forget who broke the ice on methadone programs in the ACT by a massive four times. Nobody is likely to match that performance in the future. The motion makes no sense when it talks about the new policies of the Leader of the Opposition. There are not any. The old ones are quite good, thank you. They are about a progressive approach to dealing with the drug problem, a broad-based approach to dealing with the drug problem, not a public relations focused one, not one about crusades, and not one about self-interest. They are about looking after the interests of people out there who are suffering from the problems of drugs in our community.

I know that you are stinging because Labor has brought forward this sensible motion to deal with issues that face the ACT community. I know that you are sensitive because Labor has said that it is not going to waste any time trying to advance issues which we cannot advance in the ACT because of the Federal Government's decisions - your preferred Prime Minister's decisions. Our policies were spot on, and I think that is what irked you most. The spiteful and vindictive approach that you have taken today does not do you any credit. But, at the end of the day, we have a motion moved by Labor and supported generally by this Assembly which will carry us forward on the issue of dealing with the drug problem in the ACT. Mrs Carnell fails to note that it was an initiative of the Labor Party that brought forward this motion today, and I think that irks them as well. It is a sensible motion. It puts a sensible thrust into dealing with the drug problems which face the ACT. Now that the motion will be passed by the Assembly, I trust that the Government will do something, rather than sit on its hands and adopt the misdirected course that it has adopted in the past.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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