Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak about two related topics. This government's cruel cuts to health funding and their lack of understanding of the support needed for those experiencing drug addition issues. Just over two years ago the Australian public entrusted this government to lead the nation. The day before we heard these words: 'We are not in the business of cutting health. Let me say it again: no cuts to health; no cuts to health.' Once elected, however, this government attacked Australia's health system at every level. After promising no new taxes, this government has attempted to slug all Australians with a $7 GP tax for every visit to a doctor, then tried a $5 tax and, as we know now, is now slugging through a backdoor tax a four-year freeze on Medicare rebates, which is forcing doctors to increase fees and restrict bulk-billing. The freeze, which commenced in July, will rip $1.3 billion out of regional practices over the next four years. In Lalor, with a bulk-billing rate of 93 per cent, this will have a huge and immediate impact on families. Our community, which already experiences an undersupply of health resources and has very high rates of obesity, kidney disease and cardiac issues—just to name a few—cannot afford a reduction in health services.

This government tore up Labor's historic health and hospitals agreement with states, slashing $57 billion out of public hospitals. But worse is the $800 million cut out of flexible funds—funds which pay for mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs. It is this last point that I want to discuss in a little more detail this evening. In my community, like communities across the country, young people, their families and their community are dealing with the impacts of methamphetamine abuse and addiction.

At the launch of the National Ice Taskforce on 7 April this year this government promised the world on combatting ice. The Prime Minister said, 'As a citizen and as a parent, I am appalled at what is happening on our streets and in our homes'—and we welcomed hearing him say that. Justice Minister, Michael Keenan, said, 'This is an issue we're not going to police our way out of'-again, a welcomed statement. Assistant Health Minister, Senator Fiona Nash, joined in, saying, 'As I travel around the country, particularly rural and regional areas, it's becoming increasingly obvious the rapid escalation of the use of this drug.' All three statements were welcome, but the reality is that we had a cut of $800 million from the front-line services that families are turning to for advice and support.

The actions that followed are worth looking at as well. The government has dedicated $20 million to an advertising campaign which includes graphic TV ads that are an almost complete replica of another version that aired seven years ago. They might create awareness, but they are also, in some cases, creating anxiety. That anxiety is sending families to seek support, but the services have been cut.

The government has also dedicated scant funds to a 'dob in a dealer' hotline which duplicates services already provided by the states and territories. I am told by young people and their families that the suppliers of this drug in my community use a pyramid selling technique: 'I will sell to you, and you have to find more customers.' So who are we dobbing in on the hotline? Our children. I think this is counterproductive. We are not able to arrest our way out of this situation.

In the last two budgets, the government has quietly ripped out a total of almost $800 million from the health flexible funds, which includes substance misuse funds supporting illicit drug treatment and rehabilitation as well as prevention strategies. We still do not know exactly how much will be ripped from the substance misuse funds and which treatment services will be affected the most. It could be any one of them across the nation.

But that is not all. Senator Nash waited until the last moment to extend funding to illicit drug treatment services that rely on the federal NGO Treatment Grants Program. This caused considerable alarm, with organisations telling their staff that they could not guarantee their employment beyond the looming end-of-financial-year deadline. What is even worse is that only a one-year funding extension was provided. The sector is still operating in an atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety. The entire handling of this affair has led to an urgent funding crisis that has made it extremely difficult for services to plan for the future, retain quality staff and make strategic decisions about how best to do their job. Staff members have left to seek more secure employment. Others have delayed improvements in their services, such as new facilities. Across Australia, treatment and rehabilitation services are falling behind and are unable to lend a hand to those seeking help to overcome addiction to ice and methamphetamine. Workers on the front line offering counselling, detox and residential rehabilitation are doing the best with what they have. They are working tirelessly, but with one arm tied behind their back because of the government's mishandling of ice treatment and cuts to vital health funds.

So, while the advertising campaign worth $20 million goes on and creates more need as people become aware—I am not suggesting that it is a bad thing that people become aware, but not putting the services in place once people seek help is catastrophic. I hear local families telling me that they are seeking advice, and some of that advice is that they should let their children get to rock bottom and kick them out of home so that they become eligible for support and rehabilitation services. What happens to a desperate young person then? Do they move in with the dealer who has become their best friend? The young asking for help need to receive help, they need to know that they can overcome a serious addiction and they need to be reassured that there is a way forward, not just be offered punitive law-and-order measures. We cannot arrest our way out of this issue. I believe we need to use fewer scare tactics and provide more support—real support and probably expensive support—to the vulnerable that deserve our assistance.

What of hope in this debate? The families I speak to who are living this nightmare are often frozen in fear and grief. They believe their child cannot recover. The direct treatment services I have spoken to say that this is not true. They tell me that there are thousands of recovery stories. I think it behoves this government to spend some of that advertising money on spreading that message—the message that there is hope. Yes, we have an issue but there is hope.

I suggest this government should find the funds for the ads that not only create awareness but also engender that hope so that families feel empowered to assist our young people. I further suggest that this government ensure that when affected young people and their families seek support they can find it. This will, of course, require funding. Firstly, this government should put the funding back to frontline services, give surety to those working in the sector, make the funding on at least a three-year cycle so that frontline services have that surety, find funds to spread a hopeful message about this and tell the stories of those who have recovered so that families can approach this with less fear and with more action—to make families more likely to seek support and to stop them being frozen in grief.

The cuts to health across the board are bad for my community, but the cuts in this area are critical: critical for the development of our young people and critical that we do not lose an entire generation because we did not offer them hope and we did not offer them enough care.