Page 171 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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MS GALLAGHER: comprehensively to look at—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: None of it—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Hanson. Order! First of all, Chief Minister, don’t ask Mr Hanson questions across the chamber. Mr Hanson, I would ask you to be more orderly. Your intervention of standing up and answering a question was not appropriate. Ms Gallagher, you have the floor.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you. Just to complete the answer, Madam Speaker, none of that $35 million is rollover. Mr Hanson is wrong again, as usual, as expected. In the next four years we will expect the same.
Alexander Maconochie Centre—needle and syringe program
MRS JONES: My question is to the Minister for Health. Clause 5.7 of the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement states that a needle and syringe exchange program will be established at the AMC medical centre. When will this program be established and how much will it cost?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Mrs Jones for her interest in the needle and syringe exchange program and, hopefully, her support for the needle and syringe exchange program at the AMC. Again, I am very happy to be in the position where I am where I get to implement the commitments that we took to the electorate.
This was one of the commitments we made clear beforehand that we would want to pursue. I think the next step for us, and the work is underway by the Health Directorate, is a consultation process around the model that we have identified as being the preferred model to implement. I am not going to put an artificial timetable around it because this will require, I think, the collaboration of corrections and Corrections Health. Those discussions are ongoing but the government remains committed to it.
In terms of cost, it is expected to be a very low cost model, as in the model identified the doctors are currently paid for. The model identified is that a prisoner attending an appointment as a patient will be seen by a doctor whose salary is currently paid for, and, if they meet the criteria, they would be provided with safe injecting equipment. It is a very low cost and already provided by the Health Directorate in a number of different settings.
MRS JONES: A supplementary.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: How will you guarantee the safety of correctional officers at the AMC when this project is established?
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