Page 1430 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 May 2015
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ABC news reported that Major Brendan Nottle of the Salvation Army said ice had had a big impact on people living on the streets or in poverty. He said:
Some of the most vulnerable people in the community that we’ve been working with have been deeply affected by ice.
Julie Tongs from Winnunga Nimmityjah says she has to call police once a fortnight to help a client:
Some days it’s very chaotic here when we have got people in the waiting room that are affected by ice and are psychotic.
There is a significant financial cost as well of providing law enforcement, prosecution, child protection services, treatment and health care, along with the social and human cost to victims’ families, neighbours and communities. There is no question that ice is a growing and insidious problem in our community and that resources allocated to tackle ice are under enormous strain in our community. We need an approach that is multifaceted. It must be an approach that covers education, treatment, health, rehab, community services, law reform, policing and greater community awareness.
Governments across Australia are strengthening their ice responses through the use of various initiatives including drug courts, sentencing offenders to treatment and rehab programs and so on. Indeed, the Victorian government had a parliamentary inquiry into ice and released a state-wide action plan in March 2015. Their plan has six objectives which closely align with the themes of the inquiry. They have a focus on prevention and early intervention programs, initiatives and resources that promote resilience and reduce risk; a strategy to reduce supply and manufacture and distribution of ice by enhancing Victoria’s drug laws, ongoing collaboration with other jurisdictions, ensuring effective control of supply of chemicals and responding to organised crime; a strategy to reduce the impact of ice on individuals, families and communities through support for early intervention and drug treatment services, information and support for families, effective justice responses to ice-related crime and initiatives to protect the community from drug driving and ice-related violence; an objective to build workforce capacity by addressing occupational violence and providing added training supports for front-line workers; an objective to work together for better outcomes by facilitating local community action and supporting tailored responses that support the needs of diverse communities; and an objective to strengthen the evidence base.
We know the federal government has recently announced a task force to deal with this insidious drug. We know New South Wales has been active. Indeed, New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Andrew Scipione said Australia was facing an epidemic of ice addicts similar to that in the US. He said to suggest we do not have the problems everyone else has is just naive. The federal parliament is currently conducting an inquiry into ice because of the nature of the problem, and I will go through some of that when I sum up, if I have the time.
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