David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm proudly the father of three boys, and one thing that keeps me up at night and frightens me about their future is the drug ice. The use of ice in rural and regional areas is twice as high as in metropolitan areas but the effects in those small communities that I represent are exponential because of the size of those communities. We see it. It's more prevalent. It's in our faces.

Proudly, our government has committed $300 million to tackle this through the National Ice Taskforce and is also making sure there's a strong influence towards rural and regional Australia. We've embraced the Primary Health Networks to engage with the communities and invest that money wisely at a community level. Over the last four months, I've been undertaking ice forums with our Primary Health Networks to ensure that the community has a say in the delivery of services in our communities to ensure that we get real delivered outcomes. We've been to Chinchilla, Dalby, Kingaroy, Warwick and recently out to St George and Roma.

In those places we've heard some harrowing stories of the families that have been impacted by this terrible drug. Only last week in Roma I heard the story of a brave young man named Justin. He is a 21-year-old man who had been clean from ice for 60 days. He stood in front of his community and told us that he still wakes up every morning with the urge to take ice again but it's the will and the strength of his family that is keeping him off it. About to go in front of a magistrate to take his punishment, he proudly stood in front of his own community and said he had done wrong. He was prepared to take that punishment, but he wanted to be part of a community that tackled this problem.

Proudly, this government has put in place Local Drug Action Teams that allow locals to educate locals against the impacts of what this terrible drug will do. Justin will be one of those young ambassadors who will stand proudly in front of their community and tell them the frightening effects ice has had on them and their families.

We should be proud that we've got small regional communities that will own this. No matter how much money we put in to this—we could put $300 million into it or we could put $600 million into it—unless the community comes together and owns this problem we will not tackle the scourge of ice. We will not do this by throwing money at it alone; the community must own it. We must come together and forge alliances. The standard we walk past is the standard we will accept. Proudly, communities like St George and Roma already have Local Drug Action Teams that are taking a real stand. Football clubs will not allow their players to be on ice. They're drug testing them. We now have businesses that are proudly doing that in the community of St George. We have leadership. We are empowering communities. No matter where it is across this nation, I implore every federal member to become part of this movement with their Primary Health Networks to ensure that we do everything we can to rid ourselves of this scourge.