Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senators Adams, Humphries, Moore, Bartlett and Crossin, move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes:

(i)

the success to date of the roll-out of the non-sniffable Opal fuel and the dramatic reduction in the number of young people sniffing petrol over the 2006-07 summer, particularly in remote communities, and

(ii)

that some progress has been made on the difficult issue of tackling petrol sniffing in Alice Springs, but that some issues still remain to be resolved;

(b)

congratulates the film makers involved in the Remote Fest short film festival and all the participants in the successful youth programs they documented;

(c)

acknowledges that substance-abuse experts recommend (as noted in the Community Affairs References Committee report, Beyond petrol sniffing: Renewing hope for Indigenous communities, tabled on 20 June 2006) that reducing the availability of inhalants is an important first step to addressing petrol sniffing that needs to be backed up by other complementary programs, including youth workers, holiday programs and other diversionary programs; and

(d)

notes that further resources are needed to provide programs and infrastructure to consolidate the success of the initiative, and to bring renewed hope to Aboriginal communities of a future free from the scourge of petrol sniffing.

Question agreed to.