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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 693 ..
MR STEFANIAK (continuing):
At present the boys who would be in the program, and there are four of them, are doing a number of activities in terms of assisting them with the particular needs they have. The school is actually resourced as part of the Stromlo Learning Centre. Some 32 students are resourced as part of that learning centre. That includes the four boys who are concerned here.
MR CORBELL: I have a supplementary question. Why will the Minister not give a commitment that the Government will allocate sufficient teaching resources to Stromlo High School to ensure that this award-winning program, which at the moment is not available at any ACT government high school, is maintained as a full-time program and so that students will continue to be able to access it?
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Corbell, Stromlo High School, as I have said, is resourced for some 32 places for its learning support centre. It is resourced also in terms of how many staff it has. I understand that this teacher indicated he wanted that definite guarantee of five to 10 years, and the principal came up with a certain proposal which was not acceptable. They have every intention of maintaining an off-line program. It cannot, I think, be exactly the same as what has been run by this particular person. That is unrealistic. The school is quite capable of running an off-line program. Whilst there has been a significant hiccup, I suppose, as a result of the particular person no longer continuing in the service, the school has every intention of running an off-line program, and I am very keen to see that it does so, Mr Corbell. I think that is absolutely essential.
MR RUGENDYKE: My question is to the Health Minister. Minister, I am advised that there are client records missing from the alcohol and drug program's methadone treatment administration. Could you please advise the Assembly whether this is the case? If so, how many records are missing and how long have you known about it?
MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Rugendyke, for the question. I think I need to take you back through the history of this. My office was contacted by a disenchanted person who had been in the drug and alcohol program and was told that she had a number of missing files, which I thought was a very serious matter indeed. Considering the particular circumstances of this person, the staff member involved advised the person that what she should do with those missing files was ensure that they were returned because if there were missing files they were stolen property. The staff member then decided to give a couple of days to that person to think about that and to deal with it.
The days passed. We were contacted again with a proposal that I should take some particular action with regard to the Drug and Alcohol Service that she was unhappy about, and on those grounds the files would then be returned. I said I was not prepared to be bribed, for want of a better word, or encouraged, or however you want to put it. It was not at the level of a bribe, but it was certainly an inappropriate suggestion. Anyway, if I felt there was something wrong with the Drug and Alcohol Service I would investigate it. I was prepared for her to tell us what specific problems there were and I would investigate them anyway, so that was an irrelevant factor. They ought to be returned.
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