Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

A few days ago a young three-year-old boy, Aylan Kurdi, became the face of a refugee crisis in the Middle East. That one image has been used to mobilise resources around the world towards supporting the refugee crisis unfolding there and this government has stepped up to help ameliorate that crisis. This morning on the front page of The Daily Telegraph perhaps we were shown the face of a boy who will become the face of the ice crisis in Australia, Brayden Rhodes—tragically, a seven-year-old boy who was killed by his uncle yesterday in Sydney who was believed to be on ice. Certainly, The Daily Telegraph's front page suggests that this boy is now the face of the ice crisis and perhaps will ensure that the broader community is made more aware of this dreadful crisis and what is being done, what more will be done and how we all need to work together as community to try to address it.

There are tragic situations like what happened to Brayden Rhodes occurring all the time now. Sadly, the number of users of this insidious drug ice has doubled in the last two years. Those using ice are doing it more frequently, with the number of people using it at least monthly also doubling in the last few years. It is one of the most addictive and dangerous drugs that we have seen come to the Australian marketplace. Unfortunately, it is widespread. I am informed it is readily available and in many cases, as we saw in the newspapers this morning, it is deadly.

We know that today ice causes more deaths on our roads than alcohol, at least in Victoria and no doubt in other states. We also know that nearly 60 per cent of all organised crime figures are involved in its production. So we must do everything that we can to get on top of this insidious drug, and this government is taking the lead to do that. Yes, we have set up a National Ice Taskforce and we asked a very prominent member of our community, former Victorian Chief Police Commissioner Lay, to head up that task force, a very highly regarded individual. He has already begun his work and soon we will be getting his final report. But many steps have already been taken, and I will come to that but, before doing that, let me first address the allegations made by the member for Throsby.

To this point, the ice scourge has been dealt with in a quite bipartisan way in this parliament. We have tried to work cooperatively with the opposition. I think the work that has occurred across the parliament in committees between individuals has been outstanding. We all need to work together on this problem. Indeed, we are working cooperatively with state governments, be they coalition or Labor state governments.

I am disappointed that the member for Throsby has tried to politicise this issue today. He is politicising it because of the Canning by-election that is coming up and he is politicising it on the basis of a falsehood. The falsehood he was alluding to today is that we have cut funding to drug and alcohol services. In fact, as the Minister for Health outlined in question time today directly to the question put to her by the member for Throsby, no such cuts to drug and alcohol services have been made. I would have thought that the member for Throsby would have had the decency in this matter of public importance debate to change some of his rhetoric. He got the answer from the Minister for Health that no cuts had been made, but he has continued with his false rhetoric and tried to split the bipartisan approach to this national scourge. I think it is outrageous. I used to think the member for Throsby was better than that, one of the more impressive members of the team opposite. But I am very disappointed with him.

Let me outline to the members opposite and to this parliament some of the actions that this government is taking in relation to ice, and perhaps some of my own reflections on what more could be done as a community. The first thing that we should point out is the action being taken jointly by the state and federal governments to try to crack down on the supply and production of ice. At the end of the day, if there is no supply there is no ice problem. You can only have addictions and problems if there is a supply. So we have put an additional $18 million towards the Australian Crime Commission to help crack down on the ice networks, as organised crime particularly seem to be the distributors and manufacturers of this dreadful drug. That is the first thing, and that is on top of a number of other activities which are occurring in law enforcement agencies at the state level, in particular through the National Anti-Gangs Squad, which is now operating in four states—Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

The second thing we are seeing occurring now across Australia is additional support and hotlines for parents who, from the feedback I have received, are so desperately in need of advice on how to deal with this, particularly if they have a child who may be using the drug. I must admit I commend the Andrews government in Victoria for introducing the Ice Help Line, which parents can call to get confidential advice on how to deal with a particular matter.

We have put more money into drug and alcohol services. This year alone something like $218 million for drug and alcohol treatment is going towards detox and rehabilitation services and the like. Is more going to be needed if this ice epidemic continues? Undoubtedly. Of course, state governments have primary responsibility in that area, but I believe that more detox and rehabilitation services may be required in the future if this deadly drug continues and the scourge continues at the rate it is. In relation to our rehabilitation services, I think we should be looking at some of the overseas models in terms of how they have done it. In particular, there are lessons to be learnt from Sweden and we should be examining that to also inform some of our policy.

Finally—and again we have started this initiative—we need to change the culture in our community in relation to illicit drugs and in particular in relation to ice. We need to get the message out there to young people, and indeed across the community, that ice is a deadly drug and that illicit drugs, illegal drugs, should never be taken, ever, and that it is not safe to take illegal drugs. That message needs to be made clear. In some respects, I find it odd that in our community we tell people very bluntly and very graphically that every cigarette kills. And that is true: every cigarette will cause you damage and ultimately smoking will kill. I think we need to have the same level of graphic message in relation to illicit drugs—that every drug is dangerous and that in some cases taking a drug only once or twice, particularly ice, can make you addicted.

When you look at the statistics as to why individuals take up drugs in the first instance, it is quite informative. You will often hear that people take up drugs in the first instance because of depression, because they are feeling down or because they want a pick-me-up. When you look at the data, the National Drug Strategy Household Survey shows that only seven per cent of people said they took drugs in the first instance because they thought it would improve their mood or would stop them feeling unhappy. Over half of the respondents, 51.4 per cent of people, said they took drugs for the first time because friends or family encouraged them to do so—that is, it was culturally accepted to take drugs in the first instance. To me, that suggests that we can work on this and that we can continue with these graphic ads on TV and continue with this very strong message that drugs should never be taken, particularly ice.

I think we have a very good national task force in place. We have already begun the efforts, but more effort is absolutely going to be required. This government is leading from the front, in cooperation with state governments, but, sadly, no longer with the support of the Labor Party. (Time expired)

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