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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (23 March) . . Page.. 673 ..

MR STEFANIAK: Yes, you did. You said that the $150,000 expenditure is pathetic. If that was all we did and that was it, including teacher time, I would agree with you, Mr Berry, but it is not. That is just in terms of programs and in terms of things such as training certain people. Mr Berry, you have to look a lot - - -

Mr Stanhope: Did the police association tell you that it was pathetic, Bill?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Stanhope might like to talk to the police association about it. I think he will find that they did not have all the information there. I think they would be the first to admit that.

Mr Stanhope: They were wrong, were they?

MR STEFANIAK: Go ahead and have a chat to them. I think there is a lot more to it than simply that figure. Indeed, if you quantified everything, you might well see the figure as being, instead of a six-figure amount, very much a seven-figure amount. I do hasten to say to Mr Berry that that is not the be-all and end-all. There are ways you can do things better. That is why we have spent a lot of time talking to a lot of people and a lot of groups about developing, hopefully, a more appropriate drug education strategy; that is why it is going out for community consultation and that is why I would hope that there will be a good response to it. It is a crucial issue, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question. Is the Minister saying that he spends more than $150,000 a year on funding key drug-health programs?

Mr Moore: Education programs?

Mr Humphries: The Government spends more.

MR BERRY: Listen to the question. Is the Minister saying that he spends more than $150,000 a year directly on funding key drug-health programs in schools? Is he saying that he is spending more than $150,000 on those programs? Will the Minister commit to increasing resources to adequately fund preventative drug education policies targeting ACT youth in light of a recent Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence report which shows that the average starting age of a heroin user has plummeted to a mere 17 years? How much more will you spend?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Berry, I think you have also got to realise that we are spending it more than just in Education. In terms of just programs - - -

Mr Berry: You are still not listening.

MR STEFANIAK: I have already explained the difference between programs and actual teaching time, but in terms - - -

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, is it a breach of standing orders not to listen to the question?

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