Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to speak in this debate, I do acknowledge that the member for Dobell is very active on this issue. She does speak about this issue a lot in the parliament. In fact, when we held a Standing Committee on Health hearing in my own electorate, she asked many of the Bendigo health providers, including Bendigo Community Health Services, what their response had been to ice. Knowing that it is an issue in regional Australia is why the amendment moved by this side, which calls upon the minister to immediately release the National Ice Taskforce report as well as the report into the review of drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services, should be accepted. These two reports, which this motion refers to, need to be released so that communities in regional areas can understand the findings and so we can set government policy based upon these reports. It is wrong to be debating these issues without all the facts in front of us. That is why I seconded the motion moved by the member for Crosby. We need those reports to be released if we are serious about tackling this issue.

I will take a couple of moments to share a local story which really captures why it is so critical that this government release these reports and restore the funding that has been cut to rehab and support services. Samantha stood in front of the Bendigo Magistrates Court almost in tears. The magistrate had raised the very real possibility of sending the 21-year-old to jail after she was charged with trafficking the drug ice in Bendigo. The judge told her:

You were the one who breached your family's trust. They are the ones who care about you. It is not just you that suffers. It is your family, friends and the community as a broader picture that are impacted by your actions.

The police caught her with a snap-lock bag of drugs in her house in her North Bendigo home in February, which she admitted she sold to fund her own habit. Speaking to the Bendigo Advertiser, Helen, her mother, said her daughter was like any other teenager. Growing up in Bendigo, she was your typical teenager. She worked in Bendigo in a small business whilst finishing high school. Yet when the business closed in 2013, she appeared to lose her meaning for life. Her mother said, 'I did not find she was using ice straight away, not until a few months after.' Within months, the cycle had started. She would leave the house for days and come home in a mess. After two days of sleeping at home, Samantha would disappear again. Throughout her story, her mother spoke of the heartbreak of seeing her daughter go down this spiral. She went from being 50 kilos to 40 kilos, almost losing our appetite. Her mother said, 'We would not see her for a few days and then she would come home in a sobbing mess, saying things like, "I cannot do this any more".'

Her family quickly started to ring rehab centres knowing there was not much time before they lost their daughter. She was yelling at her parents before retiring to bed for days. But Helen said that when she would ring these rehab centres, there were waiting lists, always waiting lists. Every time she asked how long the waiting list was, she would be told the only certain thing was it would take time. It would take time to get her daughter in for help. No-one would take her unless she was physically hurting yourself or hurting someone else. This was what I find heartbreaking. Because she was not physically hurting herself—although I would argue that taking drugs is hurting oneself—no-one would take her.

This is the problem that we have. Money has been taken out of these critical services that support people seeking help. Last year's budget cut almost $200 million from health flexible funds. This year's budget took almost $600 million away from health flexible funds. These funds were going towards health services, helping young people, helping people who wanted to get their life back—the rehab services that we talk about. A further $1.2 million was initially taken from the Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grant Fund—more money is being taken from frontline services. It is not good enough. If this government were serious about ensuring that we get on top of this problem, they would support regional communities. They would support health services who are opening their beds up, who are ensuring that young people like Samantha are not left on the end of a phone line, that their parents will have access to a rehab bed if they need it. In my own area we only have four rehab beds for a community of 100,000, for the City of Greater Bendigo, which serves the Loddon Mallee region It is time this government really got serious and funded these services properly.

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