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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (29 November) . . Page.. 3388 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

If that is so, would it be the case that, despite the ACT picking up some of the responsibility, the failure to obtain Commonwealth funding means that there are disabled people in the ACT whose quality of life suffers because funds for this purpose are consequently limited?

MR MOORE: I will take that question on notice, Mr Speaker.

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I raise a supplementary question. I understand there is probably a relationship with Mr Stefaniak's department somewhere too. When you answer, Mr Moore, could you give a comment on whether there has been any study of unmet need as part of any examination of this?

MR MOORE: Yes.

MR RUGENDYKE: My question is addressed to the minister responsible for police, Mr Stefaniak. Minister, on Monday morning on ABC radio we heard the startling evidence from a luminary in the academic field whose PhD thesis has firmly cemented her credibility that drug dealers are going into needle distribution centres and collecting a hundred needles at a time for their clients. Has this academic reported this experience to police, and, if so, what action has been taken?

MR STEFANIAK: I do not know, Mr Rugendyke. I will take on notice the question of whether that academic has reported that to the police.

MR RUGENDYKE: I ask a supplementary question. How does the ACT government feel about subsidising drug dealers in this way?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Rugendyke, I think the ACT government's record on drug dealers speaks for itself. I am delighted with the efforts made through intelligence policing to smash some very serious drug distribution rings. Hopefully you might have seen last week that a ring was smashed. With some excellent intelligence, police hit about three different sites in Canberra and a car on one of the Canberra streets. They took into custody a number of people and charged them with a number of offences in relation to drug dealing. As well as that, some $60,000 worth of heroin-about 4 ounces or, if my maths is correct, 250 grams, which is 125 times the trafficable quantity-was seized. Also, $50,000 in cash was seized. That was the result of very good police work.

The police are concentrating now on good intelligence policing and getting in there and smashing some of the more serious drug distribution rings that are now operating in our city. That is something that they will continue to do and they are certainly hopeful of smashing a few more rings in the near future.

I commend the men and women of the Australian Federal Police on their efforts to get stuck into the drug dealers. They mix intelligence policing with other steps such as observation and picking up drug dealers in the act of making drug deals. This is something that they are also doing pretty effectively. Recently they had a blitz and picked up quite a few people around Garema Place.

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