Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, my question is to the Assistant Minister for Health, Senator Nash. Can the minister confirm that her decision to axe the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia has cost taxpayers almost $1 million? Can the minister confirm that the cost of axing the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council was almost equal to its annual running cost?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. Unfortunately the senator has done nothing more than read what has been put forward in the media. The facts of the case—and this has been clearly put on the record by me previously through the estimates process—are these: I did indeed approve funding of up to $750,000 for the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia. I can inform the senator that that was to cover costs already incurred by ADCA. It was not $1 million incurred because of the ceasing of funding for future ADCA provision; it was to cover the costs already incurred.

Let us just have a look at why those costs were incurred. It was because the previous Labor government had left ADCA unfunded. It was because the previous Labor government had not completed a funding agreement, which ran for several months. The previous Labor government had months to complete their funding agreement with ADCA. They had committed funding, but it was the previous government—the previous Labor government—that left ADCA unfunded. So indeed, Senator, there was funding provided by me to ensure that the costs already incurred by the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia were met.

Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister outline to the Senate the role played by her former chief of staff in the axing of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council? Can the minister confirm that her former chief of staff and not the minister conveyed the news of the axing to the council?

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! To answer the question, Senator Nash needs to be heard in silence.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. As I have previously stated on the record: yes, that is the case.

Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Does the minister agree with her former parliamentary colleague and chair of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council, Dr Mal Washer, who describes her decision to wield the axe as the result of: 'dumb advising dumber, and dumb won'?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. No.