Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

This is an important issue and it deserves to be treated seriously, but I am very disappointed at the manner in which this motion has been brought before this chamber. We are being asked to note the contents and recommendations of a report that this government has not even provided to the community or the parliament. For this reason, I will be moving an amendment. I move:

That all words in paragraph (3) be replaced with "notes that it has been 511 days since the Government received the Review of Drug and Alcohol Prevention and Treatment Services Sector Report and calls on the Minister to immediately release this report and the report of the National Ice Taskforce."

I would have thought that if the member were seriously concerned about the issues in her electorate and the issues right around the country then as a part of her contribution in this debate today that report, which she asks us to endorse, would have been tabled so that it was available for us to talk in an informed manner about its contents. If it had been any other member then I would have been surprised, but noting the spectacular debut of this member into the serious debate around methamphetamine use I am not surprised. This is the member who went on national television and talked about people eating their eyeballs—a spectacular story. The only problem with it is that it was not true. We need a serious contribution to this debate, not the sort of guff that we are getting at the moment.

Let us talk about some serious issues. Let us talk about the $800 million worth of cuts to funding that this member's own government has visited upon the treatment sector and the delays in funding which mean services in her own electorate have had to cut staff.

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