Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 309 ..
MS TUCKER (5.02): This has been quite a difficult decision to make. Obviously I am very supportive of having sharps containers made available in the community. It is certainly a major public health issue in the ACT. I was interested to understand why the Government was getting this mandatory requirement to apply only to hotels. So I wrote to Mr Humphries and asked for some more information on it. In response, he gave me some information about the number of sharps collected by providers across Canberra, but they were not specific in location. So that was not really useful in terms of whether the clubs or hotels, particularly, were a place where the needles were found. He also gave me a copy of a letter from the Chief Health Officer, who was supportive of the sharps containers being put in hotels. The Chief Health Officer said:
In a recent review of the trial of safety packs at needle and syringe outlets in the ACT, a recommendation was provided to the Department of Health and Community Care which stated that it be made mandatory for shopping malls and the private sector to provide sharps disposal units. This was considered desirable for many reasons including occupational safety of cleaners and staff of these venues. I cannot see how the provision of these units would encourage illicit drug use in licensed premises, and to argue this is more likely a lame excuse on behalf of the owners.
That report made recommendations regarding this issue. Recommendation 17 said:
Businesses which involve entertaining the public are strongly encouraged to have sharps disposal bins in their toilets.
That is arguably going to cover clubs as well. For that reason, I am surprised that this particular regulation did not cover clubs. I support members here today who have raised that concern.
The other recommendation is that either it should be mandatory for shopping malls to have sharps disposal bins in their toilets or they should be persuaded by education to do the same thing, and that policy on responsibilities of the private sector in regard to disposal of sharps be developed as a matter or urgency in consultation with the sector.
I understand that the Department of Health and Mr Moore are working on those recommendations. My concern about this process has been what appears to be a lack of communication between the two areas of government. Obviously work has been done in Health. I respect the view of the Chief Health Officer and I take that seriously, but the recommendations of the report that she quotes are a little bit more broad than you would think from this particular letter of support.
We have heard that some clubs have already chosen to have sharps containers. That does not support what Mr Humphries is saying. He is saying that it is not likely to be an issue in clubs because a different sort of person uses the clubs, and that they are member oriented organisations not open to the general public.
Mr Stanhope: At the Commonwealth Club, I agree.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .