Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A Senate inquiry into crystal methamphetamine heard last week from Holyoake that children in Tasmania as young 10 years of age are smoking ice. Regional areas in Tasmania have the highest rates of ice use in the country. It is clear that ice abuse is increasing. It is cheap and easy to access. The link to organised crime is also very, very clear. This is a national issue that must be addressed with a national approach.

I note that last week a group of former premiers, police commissioners and legal advocates pushed for decriminalisation, and to treat drug use as a health issue rather than an issue for the justice system. I can see this group has the best intentions, and while I do not agree with the push to decriminalise drug use, I do agree that drug use is a health issue. But to argue that drug use should only be tackled as a health issue ignores the criminal link. Only a holistic approach to tackling drugs will provide Australia with the tools we need to overcome a wave of drugs flooding our communities and tearing apart families.

There are two elements to this issue—that is, supply and demand. A holistic approach would target both at the same time. Targeting supply means a unified federal approach to organised crime laws. At the moment, if one state makes laws to clamp down on organised crime then the groups just move to states with laws that are more welcoming. Welcome to Tasmania. Leaving organised crime to the states to fix has only resulted in the issue being duckshoved between states like a hot potato. A federal government with courage and a backbone would be willing to take on the responsibility of getting tough on organised crime, to stem the flow of drugs into our towns and communities, and to begin healing our families and communities. Any federal governments who do take on the challenge in the future will have their work cut out for them. Ice use has almost doubled, organised crime groups are growing savvy and setting up meth labs within Australia, and it is costing Australians a whopping $36 billion.

The second element of this issue is demand, and this is where I agree with the group of former premiers, police commissioners and legal advocates. Drug users should not be jailed. We know that drugs are readily available within Australian jails, so it does not seem logical to send drug users who commit minor drug-related crimes there. Instead, the government should be setting up rehabilitation centres so that these people can heal and overcome their addiction. But the government has thrown this issue into the too hard basket.

Drug users are people with mental and physical health issues and they need to be treated as such. I ask the government to not write off this group of people as no-hopers and to approach reform with care, compassion and just a little bit of tough love. My son was a drug user; he was addicted to ice. But he has overcome that addiction, and now he is helping others to do the same. He has had very little choice in his rehabilitation and recovery. It was rehab or jail. Fortunately, he accepted the second chance that life handed to him. I only wish I had the avenues to deal with his addiction when he was a teenager. As the law stands, parents do not have the right to involuntarily detox their children. But I know that if I had that opportunity when he was younger then he would not have mixed with the organised crime groups to support his habit, and the damage caused to his various relationships would have been far less.

Ice is a completely different beast: one pill can kill; one hit can hook. As such we need to treat it differently. Most Australian parents fail to realise that they do not have any legal rights should their son or daughter become addicted to ice. It is my job to educate Australian parents about their lack of rights under Australian law to protect their children from themselves. The $300 million the Liberal government is rolling out to tackle ice will be a waste of money if the government does not give Australian parents the right to involuntarily detox their ice addicted children and, ultimately, is empowering organised crime groups.

Tasmania also has the second highest rate of suicide in Australia, with 16.3 deaths per 100,000 people according to the latest data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In fact, suicide is almost double the Tasmanian road toll each year and costs the Tasmanian economy more than $53 million per year according to KPMG. There are a range of factors which contribute to suicide risk in rural communities, including the accumulation of difficult conditions like drought, flooding, fire, economic and financial factors, family pressures and domestic violence, increasing use of ice, and a lack of access to services.

Fortunately, in Tasmania we have an organisation called Rural Alive & Well, known as RAW. RAW supports individuals, families and communities in Tasmania with the consequences of the trauma caused by natural and economic pressures and disasters, in a mainstream policy and service framework that lacks an understanding of 'culturally safe' practices in rural communities.

RAW's motto is 'Talk to a mate'. They make sure they get their boots on the ground to provide support for people living and working in rural and regional Tasmania who might not be able to access services, such as farmers and veterans. RAW goes above and beyond, by increasing its client load over time. If the current rate of increase continues for the rest of the financial year, the RAW outreach program alone will see 2,140 clients. That is an almost 100 per cent increase from the previous financial year. RAW outreach travelled almost 250,000 kilometres in the 2015-16 financial year to assist their clients.

For $1 spent on RAW services, RAW returns up to $24 in savings back to the community. And RAW does all this with just 10 workers—that's right: just 10 workers. Wow, this organisation is cost-effective and achieving real rural and regional outcomes. So imagine my surprise when I found out RAW is facing the real possibility of having to pull out of Tasmania due to a lack of funding. Their charitable funds are non-recurrent and provide no operational certainty. The federal government's funding to RAW, which received under the national suicide prevention strategy, has now been transferred to the Tasmanian primary health network and will be used for the commissioning of yet-to-be-determined services, including mental health and clinical services. Imagine the economic impact on Tasmania if the people in our growth industries, such as aquaculture, fruit growing and wine production, do not receive the outreach help they need so desperately. I am asking the federal government, leading up to the May budget, to fully fund the extended RAW outreach program on a recurrent basis over the forward estimates to allow RAW to continue the great work they are doing.

I am going to change direction now and discuss the case of Glenn Kolomeitz. Glenn Kolomeitz, the CEO and state secretary of the New South Wales RSL, took that job at significant personal and financial cost to himself—a reduced income and time away from his young family—out of a sense of dedication and commitment to veterans' welfare. As a lawyer, on leaving the regular Army in 2012, he began appearing pro bono for veterans in PTSD related criminal cases around New South Wales and in entitlement appeals before the AAT.

Glenn identified the need for reform in the ex-services charity sector, so he accepted the role of CEO RSL New South Wales on a platform of renewal, reinvigoration and a greater mission focus. That mission is the care and wellbeing of serving and ex-serving ADF members and their families. Glenn brought to the job a veteran's understanding of the issues confronting the ex-service community, along with solid professional legal and business experience and credentials, and the ethical posture of both a lawyer and a former policeman. There is no doubt that Glenn is the most qualified CEO and state secretary the RSL in New South Wales has ever had. This combination of war service, ethics and business sense was absolutely critical for the RSL to move forward and become relevant and financially sustainable into the future.

When he took the job, the old men of the RSL New South Wales state council knew his background, the skills he brought to the table and his strategic plan for the organisation. Glenn very quickly began to discover financial irregularities and company structural defects in RSL New South Wales and set about rectifying them. He identified the legal obligation for RSL New South Wales to dedicate all revenue from its almost half a billion in cash and property to its charitable purpose—the care and wellbeing of veterans and their families—and established a social impact investment model which would put that money to work whilst generating a good return on the investment to sub-branches.

The extent of the financial irregularities soon became apparent to the extent that he demanded a forensic audit of all expenditure in RSL New South Wales. This led to the need for Glenn to exercise his statutory obligations as chief executive and report the irregularities to various regulatory agencies—the ACNC, the ATO, the Office of Fair Trading and eventually New South Wales Police. To his credit, the New South Wales Minister for Veterans' Affairs, David Elliott MP, took the pressure off Glenn by organising a New South Wales Police strikeforce to investigate RSL New South Wales. It appears the old men of the board did not like Glenn doing his job—acting ethically and professionally—so they started a bullying campaign against Glenn.

One state councillor sent an email to sub-branches across northern New South Wales, saying that Glenn had 'gone to the dark side'. I must advise that particular state councillor that he is the dark side, not Glenn. He is the subject of numerous investigations. Glenn has been trying to fix the mess the state councillors either created or contributed to by failing in their duties as directors of this half a billion dollar company or by directly concealing fraud on the part of their forerunners. One RSL member recently said that, by demanding the forensic audit, reporting the organisation to regulators, and cooperating with all investigations, Glenn 'called the artillery in onto himself'. Sadly, the artillery—without any fire—is the old men of the state council, who, rather than looking inward at their own breaches and failures, have opted to attack the soft target, the salaried CEO.

When Glenn demanded a forensic audit, the most vocal voice in the RSL boardroom against the audit was the current state treasurer, Bill Harrigan, an 80-year-old man who has no qualifications in business or accounting and no experience which would qualify him as a treasurer. This is the same 80-year-old man who argued vigorously against doing any company director training when Glenn attempted to introduce Australian Institute of Company Directors training to the state council. Had these old men done some governance training of this nature, they might not be in the position in which they find themselves now. This is the same 80-year-old man who has been accused of bullying and vilifying young veterans and other RSL and club members and staff, and who is presently facing a disciplinary hearing for bullying before his own RSL club. How is this old man a fit and proper person to sit on the board of a half a billion dollar business, let alone to be its treasurer?

These state councillors have been claiming they were not aware of all the financial misdeeds and mismanagement going on around them. The state president, John Haines, has been in that boardroom for 20 years. For him to say he had no idea what was going on either means he was asleep at the wheel of the RSL or he was aware and chose to ignore it. Either way, he and the rest of that board have not exercised their duties as directors.

The sheer quantum of allegations is simply overwhelming: allegations a former state president misused funds, including multiple phones for family members and cash withdrawals against the company credit card; allegations another former state president and a number of sitting state councillors were getting directors' fees for sitting on the board of another arm of RSL New South Wales; allegations these state councillors were laundering funds through the RSL welfare trust to the other arm on which they were sitting as directors; allegations the current state president took payment for his voluntary work at Granville RSL sub-branch; allegations the current state president also attempted to launder funds through the RSL welfare trust to bolster support for him in the election of state president; allegations the current state councillors concealed the frauds allegedly perpetrated by a former state president in order to get him to relinquish the state presidency; allegations a state councillor was involved in travel rorts overseas in support of wounded ex-Defence athletes—and the list goes on and on and on.

It now appears the state president and his cronies are attempting to bury these matters by disengaging the forensic investigators brought in to look at these and many other allegations before the investigation is complete. It appears they have arranged a board of inquiry but will attempt to ensure the minimal amount of evidence is put before it in order to exculpate themselves. This is consistent with the smoke-and-mirrors manner in which they operate. The state council recently told the membership of RSL New South Wales that they had stood down pending the outcome of the board of inquiry. Even a cursory look at the resolution under which they purportedly stood down shows they have not, in fact, stood down at all—they are still performing all the duties of state councillors and are still making decisions of a financial nature, notwithstanding that they have allegations of financial mismanagement hanging over their heads.

They are also running around poisoning many of the initiatives started by the CEO, Glenn Kolomeitz, including his social impact bonds program, which would ensure veterans' welfare programs would be properly funded for generations to come. They are running a scorched-earth campaign against the CEO which will damage the RSL in New South Wales long after these old men have passed.

In the meantime, they have bullied, harassed and publicly vilified the one member of that organisation who brought any hope of reform—the CEO, Glenn Kolomeitz. Their conduct towards him is straight out of 1950s workplace relations. These old men must get over their misplaced thirst for revenge, publicly apologise to the CEO and let him get on with the job of fixing the mess that they have made.

You old men have taken away the integrity of the New South Wales RSL. You old men have one job left to do: stand down. You have no other option. You are an absolute disgrace, the lot of you! And shame on you!

I also see that the RSL South Australia is back in the news today, with the Adelaide based InDaily reporting on the mass exodus of the RSL South Australia board of directors. Five of the nine RSL board of directors have resigned following revelations of a cash-flow crisis in the South Australian state branch. RSL National has sent in an auditor to assess the books. It is good to see the national RSL has finally woken up out of its coma after many, many years, and is actually starting to get a little active on this situation—better late than never.

Lastly, I would like to briefly touch on the issue of the maritime colleges. It is time to give Tasmania a fair go. I welcome the recent announcement by Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne revealing plans for a maritime technical college to be based in South Australia—that is, as long as the new college does not impact on the business models of AMC and AMFA.

The announcement leaves the door open for a pathway to more senior training that will impact on the business models of AMC and AMFA. Training which is currently provided at AMC for defence research and autonomous underwater vehicles, to name a few, will be severely restricted and undermined if the new college were to undertake those types of training, or take some of its funding.

The name of the new college, MTC, is similar to AMC, which at first glance looks threatening. At a time when funding is scarce, the government should not be putting resources into an area which is already covered by existing colleges that provide research and training envied by the rest of the world.

As long as the minister undertakes that the new business model will not interfere with the business models of both AMC and AMFA, I will support this new announcement. Otherwise, there will be a day of reckoning, Mr Pyne, and I will not forgive; nor will I forget. Let us not destroy what is left of the country's institutions. AMC and AMFA deserve a fair go. They have earned that, and they have earned their reputation as being some of the best in the world. I will not stand back and watch you, just to get votes, to save your own butt, in parliament, take from these two institutions.