Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to inform the Senate tonight of a situation in my home state of South Australia, which was raised with me by my very diligent and hardworking Labor colleague Clare Scriven MLC. Clare is, in fact, my counterpart in the South Australian parliament. She is the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, the state's upper house. She's raised with me a very serious issue in her community, the community of Mount Gambier—in that beautiful part of South Australia, the south-east of South Australia.

About four years ago, Mount Gambier and the Limestone Coast region, like many regional areas across Australia, had been dealing with problems associated with drug abuse, including the use of the drug commonly known as ice. Indeed, Mount Gambier was chosen to host the federal government's first National Ice Taskforce community meeting in 2015. Media reports at that time and since have talked about the confronting challenges drug abuse can cause for communities, including drug-induced psychosis and violence—including violence against emergency services and hospital staff—as well as the health and social impacts of drug use by teenagers and, in some reported cases, children.

Despite these concerning reports and despite the hard work of the south-east community leaders and service providers, it seems that there is now a lack of support from the Morrison government. Last week, on 28 November 2018, The Border Watch newspaper reported: 'Mount Gambier and the Limestone Coast will miss out on $20 million of an Australian government boost to drug and alcohol treatment services, with the region not considered as "an area of need" compared to other South Australian locations.' Just to be clear, the federal funding announced for drug and alcohol treatment services is not open to services in South Australia's south-east. That is completely unacceptable, given the issues that have been identified in the region, including through the government's own Ice Taskforce community meeting.

For those senators not familiar with Mount Gambier, it's South Australia's biggest population centre outside of Adelaide, with a population of about 26,000 people. The broader Mount Gambier and Limestone Coast area has a population of about 65,000 people. Sadly, there have already been far too many cases in this community of damage done by ice and other drugs.

On 9 January this year, the then-Liberal candidate for the state seat of MacKillop, Mr Nick McBride, was quoted in the Border Chronicle newspaper about the scourge of ice in the region, the toll it was taking on the community and how more must be done to combat it. Mr McBride said:

The South East is facing an uphill battle against crystal methamphetamine, also known as Ice, and we need a greater strategy to stop the spread of this drug.

Not only do we need more preventative measures put in place but we need the support services to assist those involved in using 'Ice' to be rehabilitated.

It's clear that the local state member gets it. It's clear that Labor's local candidate down there, Clare Scriven, gets it. Perhaps the member for Barker, Tony Pasin, could learn a thing or two from Clare and stand up for his local community. Rather than standing up for the needs of the south-east communities, Tony Pasin has instead bucketed his buddies inside the Canberra bubble. As the federal Liberal South Australian MPs and senators have so often done on issues like the River Murray, energy and infrastructure investment, Tony Pasin has chosen to protect the political interests of his party colleagues rather than advocate for the interests of people he is supposed to represent. It seems the only thing Mr Pasin has done in recent times is to organise the fumbling numbers for Peter Dutton.