Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, the Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity, the Hon. Angus Taylor visited Canning to release the fourth report of the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program. The program provided the national estimated weight of four illicit drugs sampled, revealing more than 8.3 tonnes of meth, three tonnes of cocaine, 1.2 tonnes of MDMA and more than 700 kilograms of heroin were consumed between August 2016 and August 2017. Most significantly for Mandurah and the Peel Region, the report revealed that meth consumption in regional Western Australia is the highest in Australia, more than that of Sydney and Melbourne. While the Peel Region, where I live and where I raise my family, is a beautiful place to live, meth and other illicit drugs are damaging young people and tearing families apart.

Since becoming the member for Canning, I have been working with local government, community groups and healthcare providers to fight for better services in our region, especially those focused on prevention and early intervention. We've had some wins. We've delivered $2 million for the PYMS health hub, which, once complete, will provide a range of treatment options for young people in the Peel Region. We've designed a plan to help welfare recipients struggling with drug abuse in Mandurah. This program will commit an additional $10 million for drug action services from which our community will share. I'll speak about this further in a moment. Finally, we're supporting the Mandurah Local Drug Action Team, which works with the community to raise awareness about the impact of alcohol abuse in local schools.

But there's more work to be done, and that's why I'm teaming up with Sideffect to host free community drug action forums in Mandurah and Byford, the south and north of my electorate. Sideffect is a not-for-profit organisation founded by Rod Bridge after his 16-year-old son tragically died after taking a synthetic form of LSD during his school ball afterparty. Joined by David Hobbs and Chris Waterman, Rod is educating parents, teachers and children about the dangerous consequences of illicit drug use. Sideffect has already had successful information sessions at local schools, including Mandurah Catholic College. Parents of one student who took part in the Sideffect presentation sent an email to me directly. I quote from it now:

The presentation was extremely powerful and enlightening and is something we strongly support being delivered to all school students. We were somewhat naive to the magnitude of the synthetic drug issues and found this presentation relevant and informative.

To reinforce this, several months ago, our 15 year old son whilst attending a party at a friend's house witnessed some of his mates being coerced into taking drugs. Our son had the courage to say NO and to assist one of his mates through the night who did not react well to the drug. He later came forward to advise the school that his mates were using drugs. This led to the school informing all the parents (who were completely unaware that their boys had used drugs).

Our son had experienced the Sideffect presentation just prior to the party and now after seeing this ourselves we understand why our son came forward. He knew the effect of his actions would jeopardise his friendships but the presentation was empowering enough for him to come forward.

That's a great email and great testimony.

Following the success of this Mandurah Catholic College event, Sideffect contacted my office. They had heard of the work this government had done in the Peel Region so far and were interested in partnering with us. I have to thank the member for Swan for advocating so strongly for them to his WA colleagues. It was a pleasure to meet Rod and David and to hear more about their work in my office. Their personal reflections indicate their passion around this issue, and Rod said to me that what he wants to do first of all is move the hearts of parents and students, and their heads will follow. I think that's a great way to approach it because drugs rip people and families apart, and we need to do something about it. So moving people's affections is really, really important.

As a result of that meeting, we decided to work together, and we're going to host two Sideffect forums in Canning. Like the one Rod ran at Mandurah Catholic College, these forums will be an opportunity for parents, teachers and students to learn about the dangers of illicit drug use. The first one will be the Mandurah event at 6.30 pm on Tuesday, 12 June at Foundation Theatre at Foundation Christian College. The second one will be a Byford event at 6.30 pm on Thursday, 14 June at West Byford Primary School.

But this is not all we are doing to fight drugs in Mandurah and the Peel region. Mandurah has also been selected to take part in the government's drug-testing trial. This trial is a unique opportunity for Mandurah. Newstart and youth allowance are designed to help people while they look for work, but, if people are struggling with drug abuse, their chances of getting hired and holding a job are much lower. Under the trial, new recipients of Newstart and youth allowance may be subject to a random drug test as a condition of their payment. Five thousand new recipients will be tested over a two-year trial period across Mandurah, Logan in Queensland and Canterbury-Bankstown, in New South Wales.

The program is not punitive. No-one will lose their welfare payment if they test positive to a drug test. Those who do test positive will have 80 per cent of their payment put onto a cashless card, so they can still pay for basics and services but will not be able to draw cash for 24 months. If someone tests positive a second time, they will receive a tailored treatment plan to help them overcome their drug addiction.

The government is providing $10 million for local services at each trial site. This includes $1 million for case management services for people who test positive more than once under the trial, $3 million to boost drug treatment capacity in the three trial sites and, finally, $6 million for additional accredited treatment support in the event that state- or Commonwealth-funded services cannot be accessed in a timely manner. I'll be fighting for $2 million to be allocated to local service providers who live and work and know the local people in our community.

It's worth noting that meth and ice use was 3.1 times higher among unemployed people than among employed people, so this is really about helping people who can't help themselves. That's the intent of the trial. Interestingly, last year, a Newspoll in October indicated that 73 per cent of people support drug testing welfare recipients. People can see the logic and the reason behind this.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't think it's a laughing matter either. I take this very seriously. I see this all the time in my local community. Whilst WA Labor have opposed this—for political reasons, I think—certainly I get a lot of support for this in my community. People want something to be done, and they're at the point where they're desperate. They're open to new ideas, and this is exactly what this is.

Honourable members interjecting—

And so the drug testing—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne and the member for Bruce are warned!

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The drug testing will identify those people who need help, and the treatment fund—

Honourable members interjecting—

Here he is, Deputy Speaker: the member for Swan, who's been a great advocate for Sideffect. I've just been talking about the great work they do in Western Australia, and I'm looking forward to the Byford and Mandurah Sideffect forums for parents and students.

But, as I was saying, the drug testing will identify those people who need help, and the treatment fund will make sure that those people have the resources they need to get drug free and job ready. No-one will lose their welfare out of this program. No-one will be worse off if they do the right thing. But, if you refuse to take a drug test, you'll find yourself in trouble. That's no different to many jobs. Many Canning workers, especially the FIFO workers, take regular drug tests for their jobs. Why should it be any different for welfare recipients? This is a very reasonable expectation, especially as many Australians support jobseekers on welfare through their taxes. I remember, when overseas on operations, having to take drug tests, and it was no problem for me. The City of Mandurah have opposed this drug-testing trial. They drug test their employees. If the standard's good enough for people across society, I don't see why we shouldn't proceed with this drug-testing trial.

In summary, Labor's opposition and the Greens' opposition are purely political. I look forward to this legislation passing the House and the Senate and to change happening in my community, because, at the end of the day, that's all that matters: people getting off drugs, getting off alcohol, being restored and then being sent into the workforce so that they can make a meaningful contribution as Australian citizens in their community.