Page 166 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 12 February 2020

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MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Milligan for the question. Again I think there is some level of misunderstanding in terms of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, which is a continuum of support. The Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm, in the vision of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, is about a healing framework, or a web; I think they refer to it as the “web of life”—I do not have that in front of me. That is really the part of the rehabilitation framework that the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm is focused on.

We have done a lot of work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and particularly with the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, the Healing Foundation and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members, to develop the model of care at the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm. We will continue to do that work and to deliver services there.

MRS DUNNE: Minister, how much of the 2007 supplementary appropriation was spent, what was it spent on and was it spent in accordance with the legislated appropriation?

MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will take that question on notice. In relation to the previous question, it is actually the living web framework that the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm and the United Ngunnawal Elders Council look at.

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders—Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm

MRS KIKKERT: My question is to the Minister for Health and the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. Minister, after only a year of its operation, your government announced a review of the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm. When the review was initiated in September 2018, it was to look at the services, program design, delivery and governance of the facility. Minister what is the status of this review and when will the outcomes be made public?

MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Kikkert for her question. She is right; the Health Directorate contracted Mr Russell Taylor AM, director of the Burbangana Consulting group, to review the service operations at the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm. The Burbangana group facilitated a Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm governance workshop on 15 April 2019 as part of the review. A total of 35 stakeholders attended and engaged in discussions, including the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, the Healing Foundation, other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community leaders and ACT government staff.

The review is now complete. The report was received by the Health Directorate on 29 July 2019. A number of the recommendations have been implemented since October 2019. That is the governance part of the review, I should be clear. Finalising other elements of the review is dependent on the work being undertaken by the Healing Foundation to develop the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm healing framework.


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