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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (28 June) . . Page.. 2153 ..

MS CARNELL

accordance with specified drawings of the circuit. The drawings were attached to the tender documentation.

The only area of the circuit that the address system was not required to cover was the area where the public could not gain access. This area was State Circle and the top of Flynn Drive, behind the Chinese Embassy. The public were not allowed there for safety reasons. This meant that, in total, more than 60 per cent of the circuit was cabled on both sides of the track, meaning that the system needed to cover in excess of five kilometres.

The tender process was carried out in accordance with ACT government tendering guidelines and I am advised that the tender was won by a company which had 10 years' experience in providing public address systems for race circuits and that local companies that tendered could not demonstrate that level of expertise.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, yesterday Mr Wood asked me a question about the methadone program. He asked me to confirm whether the costs for clients in the third stream program will double-from $15 to $30 per week-as a result of budget initiatives. I asked for advice on that and the answer is as follows: methadone treatment can be delivered by a public prescriber and public dispenser, a public prescriber and private dispenser, a private prescriber and private dispenser or a private prescriber and public dispenser. In the ACT, currently there are three streams of methadone treatment available, using a public prescriber and public dispenser, the first stream; a public prescriber and private dispenser, the third stream; and a private prescriber and private dispenser, the second stream.

The cost of dispensing methadone was set by the ACT Pharmacy Guild in 1996 at $30 per week. Private dispensing, until recently, was fully subsidised, that is, clients participating in the second stream and the old third stream contributed $15 per week to the cost of dispensing and the ACT government subsidised the pharmacists for the other $15 a week.

Decisions on how methadone treatment is delivered are guided by the principles of availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of care. The aim is to achieve a balance between these principles and provide a mix of service options whilst responding to the continual demand and growth required for methadone treatment places in the ACT. The first stream of methadone treatment ensures that treatment is available to priority and disadvantaged groups. Clients are offered free treatment for the first six months. The alcohol and drug program is contracted to provide an average of 270 treatment places per year in this first stream.

The introduction of the second stream made methadone treatment more accessible because community pharmacies participate in dispensing and are located in proximity to clients. The pharmacy subsidy ensured that the dispensing of methadone was affordable and acceptable to clients. The alcohol and drug program is contracted to provide an

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