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

I thank the senator for his question and note his very real concern regarding this issue. I can advise that the task force, the Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, and I have been travelling around Australia to seek feedback from the community and from expert groups, allowing people who have been affected by this drug or who are involved in those services relating to it to have a direct input into the task force.

One of the things that has become extremely clear is that law enforcement alone will not tackle this issue. It is going to be much broader. We have law enforcement officers telling us now that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem; we cannot police our way out of this problem. It is a very important part, and I certainly pay credit to all of the police involved on the front line dealing with this drug. But it is much broader than that. We will need to look at issues of demand. We will need to look at issues around education, particularly for young people so that they never start and never get involved in this drug. Also, we will need to look at issues such as rehabilitation and treatment services—where the gaps are, what we need to address, what is working well and what is not.

The task force has conducted many consultations over the last six weeks. There have been 11 expert roundtables with health peak bodies, seven community discussions in Mt Gambier, Broome, Darwin, Newcastle, Hobart, Townsville and Mildura, and 13 one-on-one meetings with experts. Also, there has been more than 1,300 written submissions from people out there in the community directly to the task force. The task force is now in the process of consolidating the interim report to the Prime Minister, which will be presented in mid-July. I look forward to the Prime Minister receiving that report from the task force and updating the chamber on the very important issue.