Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to raise serious concerns about a decision that was made on 21 September this year by the Congress Community Development and Education Unit along with the Department of Health and Ageing to register an appeal against the Cook Shire Council's decision in the Planning and Environment Court with regard to an application to establish the Cape Residential Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre at Lot 7, Flaggy Road, in Cooktown.

The community had serious concerns about this application. In the first instance, it was non-compliant in relation to the town plan. The site is some 25 kilometres outside of Cooktown and is at the end of a 10-kilometre gravel road which is regularly isolated for weeks, sometimes months, in any given year due to flooding. I visited the site personally. It is a grey, sandy, swamplike area. It is very boggy in the area and it would be a major problem living in that area during the wet season. There is certainly no access to town water or anything like that at the site. The other concern that the community had was that Cooktown Hospital is in an appalling state and for the issues that were going to have to be addressed there and the imposts on that hospital there needed to be a significant investment in the hospital to be able to meet the needs of the clientele.

The community that objected had no real issue in relation to the establishment of a centre of this nature. They had raised the fact that there had been two other regional rehabilitation centres—one in Cairns, Douglas House, and another one in Mareeba, the Rose Collis Haven—with a combined capacity of some 44 beds plus an additional 20 aged-care beds. Both of them were defunded and closed down by this government. The 20 aged-care beds have never even been slept in. They were paid for, built and shut down, and the community are asking the question: why couldn't these facilities be used?

Local Indigenous populations also expressed concern, like the broader community, at the total lack of consultation. There are a number of sites that would have been far more appropriate for this use, but unfortunately the CCDEU, the Congress Community Development and Education Unit, continued to pursue this particular site. On four separate occasions at different meetings the CCDEU gave an undertaking to the community that if the decision was made that the site was unsuitable and was not approved by council they would not appeal. The fact that they have now gone back on their word is extremely disappointing and is outraging the local community. The overwhelming majority of the councillors supported the decision to not approve it, and DoHA and the CCDEU are going against the face of the community. The problem we have now, of course, is our local community are trying to fight this. You have people like Steve Weise and Kate Dagge. They are the concerned citizens opposed to the location. They have been vilified in some ways by these organisations who have suggested that it is based on a racist objection. This is not the case at all. It is purely a site location problem, and I will be calling on DoHA and the CCDEU to show some commitment to the community, honour the original agreement that they had in disposing of the appeal and working with the community to find a far more appropriate site so this facility can be established while at the same time giving a commitment to rebuild and upgrade the services of the Cooktown Hospital so that they will be in a position to offer the appropriate level of service to any of the clients that are brought into this area. I certainly support the Cook Shire Council's decision and I support Kate, Steve and the community in their endeavours to have common sense prevail on this issue. (Time expired)