$300m boost to tackle ice

Yesterday, Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joined with Justice Minister Michael Keenan to release the National Ice Taskforce final report and Commonwealth’s response.

The government’s response detailed a comprehensive package of measures to reduce demand for ice, while continuing efforts to disrupt supply, a statement said.

The government pledged to invest about $300m over four years to improve treatment, after care, education, prevention, support and community engagement to tackle ice.

Senator Nash said it was yet to be determined how much of that $300m would be delivered to the regions but “certainly the lack of resources that we have seen out in rural and regional areas to date will be a significant consideration”.

She said overall the government had made an historic investment into reducing demand for ice.

“There is no doubt that this is a significant issue for people right across this country and - if we are going to break the drug dealers model - we need to smash demand and policing alone is not going to do that,” she said.

“We’re going to need to work with local communities; government alone can’t tackle this issue and we’ll be working with local communities on the ground.

“We need to help people get off this drug and we need to make sure people never, ever start.”

Senator Nash said as well as investing $300m of new money into the drug prevention program the government was also building on an existing $310m that’s currently going into treatment services.

She said existing alcohol and other drug treatment services contracts would be extended until mid-2017 while transitioning towards a new model under the Primary Health Network (PHN).

Senator Nash said $241m would be going towards treatment services through the PHN model which will include an expansion of existing services.

“We will have a specific focus on Indigenous treatment services and the PHN’s will work very, very closely with the Aboriginal community controlled health sector,” she said.

“It will also allow alignment between this program and the mental health program.”

Senator Nash said she’d travelled tens of thousands of kilometres across the country and spoken to hundreds of people “very badly affected by this issue”.

“It’s going to be a hard slog, but we are absolutely going to tackle it,” she said.

Mr Turnbull said too many Australians – especially young Australians – were harming themselves and others through the use of methamphetamines, including ice.

He said strong law enforcement was “absolutely critical” to countering the illegal trafficking of ice “but much more needs to be done and this has been the focus of the Taskforce report”.

“The responsibility for tackling this very complex problem can’t be left to the police alone,” he said.

“We cannot arrest our way to success, we need to do a lot more.”

Mr Turnbull said the report showed that proportionally, Australians used more methamphetamine, including ice, than almost any other country.

He said reported use of ice had more than doubled since 2007 with an estimated 200,000 people using the drug or reported using the drug in 2013.

Mr Turnbull said the Taskforce's report made 38 recommendations on how government can strengthen the response across five key action areas: supporting families, communities and frontline workers; targeting prevention activities to those most at risk; tailoring services to ensure they’re fit for purpose; and strengthening law enforcement to more effectively disrupt the supply of ice.

“This is an evolving situation - we have to be as dynamic and agile in our response as the problem has been in its rapid eruption or its rapid emergence,” he said.

Mr Kennan said the report made it clear there was “a substantial problem in Australia in relation to crystal methamphetamine”.

“We’re trying to lock up the kingpins who are responsible for its import into Australia - but whilst there is this explosion in demand, supply will find its way in,” he said.

“The best thing that we can do to help our law enforcement agencies is to stop people from using this drug in the first place."

Taskforce chair Ken Lay said his committee had spoken to families during the report writing process and heard about them being ripped apart by the drug and gained “a real sense of what they could do or where they could go for help”.

He said the Taskforce had identified gaps and opportunities but also captured the complexity and the depth of the problems facing the community.

“There is simply no silver bullet to resolve this problem,” he said.

“The response needs to be carefully constructed, as well as being an integrated approach.”

Senator Nash also confirmed a ”Dob-in-a-Dealer” hotline would be maintained which was an important component to the rural strategy.

“One of the things that came before me, travelling around particularly rural and regional areas is that people did like to have anonymity in a small town in raising issues about people they suspected may be involved,” she said.

In welcoming the report’s release, Mental Health Australia CEO Frank Quinlan said closer integration was needed between the mental health system and the alcohol and drug treatment systems.

“These problems frequently co-exist and we must ensure a service system that is built around the needs of individuals who require support,” he said.

“This report provides our community with a pathway towards addressing what is a significant social problem, with clear linkages to mental health and wellbeing.”

The package includes: