E&OE..........................................................................................................................
Well thank you very much Mr Wilson. To the Right Reverend Bishop Kernot,
the head of Anglicare in Australia and here in Victoria; to Major
Brian Watters; to my Colleague Michael Wooldridge, the Federal Minister
for Health; to Philip Baressi, the Federal Member for Deakin; other
members of Parliament, representatives of the various organisations
concerned about the drug problem, ladies and gentlemen.
I would first of all like to thank Anglicare for the opportunity of
launching this second round of Federal Government financial support
for treatment programs here at its Victorian headquarters. Anglicare
is one of the major frontline welfare organisations in Australia.
It's an organisation which is an important part of the social coalition
that is needed in Australia to deal with difficult welfare issues
and to tackle major social problems. I use the expression social coalition
very deliberately to underline the point that no one section of the
community is adequate to the task of dealing with underprivilege,
or adequate to the task of dealing with a challenge such as drug abuse.
The Government alone cannot beat the drug problem. Individuals alone
cannot beat the drug problem. Families need help to tackle the drug
problem, and we need as individuals, as family members and as leaders
of the Government, we need to enlist a frontline experience and support
of organisations such as Anglicare. And that is why it is entirely
appropriate that on the day in which I announce a further Commonwealth
financial commitment, of the details of a further Commonwealth financial
commitment to the treatment programs which are an important part of
our tough on drugs strategy, I do so here at the headquarters of one
of those organisations that is an important element in the fight against
drugs, and indeed the general campaign to deliver a fairer, more decent,
and just society.
The drug problem has been very much in the news in recent weeks. Not
because it's something that has suddenly arrived, but through a combination
of circumstances there has been a level of public preoccupation with
and concentration on it that I don't think I have experienced at any
time since I entered Parliament almost 25 years ago.
I don't pretend for a moment as Prime Minister that what my Government
has done has provided all of the answers. And it is not essentially
an issue that should be divided on party political lines. There are
people who are deeply concerned about this issue and have something
to contribute on this issue from all strands of political life in
Australia, both State and Federal. And I would hope to the maximum
degree possible that the effort at a government level to deal with
the problem should be on a bipartisan basis. And that will certainly
be the approach that I will take as Prime Minister to the Premiers'
Conference on the 9th of April when this issue will be the main business
of the afternoon session of that particular conference. And I've said
before and I repeat it, that I will work as freely and willingly with
a Labor Premier of any of the States of Australia as I will with a
Liberal or National Party Premier.
The Government's Tough on Drugs Strategy which involves the expenditure
of about $290 million, in dollar terms is the largest commitment by
any Federal government to such a strategy. I don't say that to score
a point but merely to record a fact and I appreciate the fact that
on a number of issues I have received public support and endorsement
from the Leader of the Labor Opposition in the Federal Parliament.
The Tough on Drugs Strategy recognises that action is needed on three
levels. We need to continue to commit further resources to law enforcement
and some of the evidence of the benefit of the additional resources
committed by the Federal Government to both Customs and Federal Police,
the stationing of officers of the Australian Federal Police in source
countries and countries through which drugs have passed from their
original source, has already begun to pay dividends. Once again I
don't overplay that but equally we shouldn't understate it.
It is true that it is a very difficult fight and it is easy for people
to despair, it is easy for people to throw up their arms and say:
we haven't solved the problem, we appear to be losing ground. And
cast around in the mistaken belief that by abandoning everything that
has been done thus far we will be suddenly more successful in dealing
with the problem in the future. It is a battle of attrition and it
is a battle of attrition which requires of all sections of the community
a determined commitment both of human resources and also of financial
resources from both the State and Federal Governments. And part of
that is obviously law enforcement. And part of it must be continued
co-operation between not only the federal agencies such as Customs
and the Federal Police, but also the maximum co-operation between
the Federal Police and the police of the various States. And the success
that has been achieved in relation to heroin and cocaine seizures
in recent months has very much been a consequence of enhanced and
more effective co-operation between the law enforcement agencies of
the Commonwealth and the law enforcement agencies of the State polices.
The second component of course is education. There can be no limit
to the requirement that people, particularly young people, children
be educated about the drug menace. There should be in my view, and
I make no apology for saying this, there should be absolutely no reluctance
at any level to pursue as vigorously as possible the Tough on Drug
message within our schools. I can't think of a higher priority, I
can't think of something where we should have a less complicated and
a less uncompromising approach than the absolute determination to
pursue the drug menace within our schools.
So therefore the second and equally important element of our campaign
is to provide resources to educate the community against the menace
of drugs. And we have set aside about $17.5 million for a plan to
campaign at a Federal level against illicit drugs in schools, and
to send the strongest possible message to school students about the
danger and the threat posed by drugs. Not only to the young but to
the community generally. And in a sense it's unfortunate that so much
of the debate in recent weeks has focused on whether or not there
should be a heroin trial and in the process I think the community
has lost sight, or perhaps not given enough attention to the very
real progress that has been made at both a State and a Federal level
in improving the resources for education and also the plans, some
of which have been announced and some of which I am to announce this
morning for committing further resources to treatment facilities.
Part of the campaign, and the third and most important part of the
campaign as far as my announcement this morning is concerned is of
course the treatment of people who are addicted, not only to heroin
but to other substances which they are abusing. I think it's fair
to say that there is nothing more distressing in this whole campaign,
in this whole issue, for somebody in my position than to be on a radio
program as I have been on two occasions here in Melbourne in recent
weeks and to speak to the despairing mother of somebody who says that
she can't get her daughter or her son into a treatment program because
there are no places available.
Now whatever views people may hold about heroin trials or indeed any
other aspect of this whole debate, there ought to be no argument that
the community has an overwhelming responsibility to provide more resources
for those people who are trying to beat their addiction, and for those
people who are trying to break the habit. Surely there can be an across
the board, not only bipartisan but multipartisan view within the Australian
community, that is unarguably one of the major priorities that we
must address our attention to.
And so it has been that we have, in the 'Tough on Drugs' campaign,
we made ma or announcements last year which involved the provision
of about $50 million in our first round of grants, $50 million to
a variety - I'm sorry, $30 million to fund 24 communities and 68 non-government
organisations for innovative community education programmes and new
treatment services. And examples of that first round included $1.5
million for the Ted Noff Foundation to establish a new non-residential
treatment service in Sydney for 12 to 18 year-olds and $1.5 million
to the Salvation Army in Preston here in Victoria for a residential
rehabilitation facility for women and their children. And today I
want to announce a further round of grants totalling approximately
$20 million for over 50 groups Australia wide to boost treatment and
counselling services. And this funding will make a further contribution
to the cause of providing increasingly greater treatment facilities
for people who are trying to break their habit. And examples of the
projects being funded in this round include $750,000 to youth off
the streets in Ultimo in Sydney for an intensive two to four week
residential service for young adults with a history of drug abuse;
$375,000 to the Salvation Army in Adelaide to employ two Aboriginal
workers for a 25bed sobering up unit for Aboriginal people; and $474,000
to Anglicare in Lilydale here in Victoria for support training and
treatment for illicit drug users and their families.
Ladies and gentlemen, these announcements that I've made this morning,
the full details of which are contained in the media kit which is
being made available, represent a further down-payment, if I can put
it that way, on the Government's 290 million 'Tough on Drugs' strategy.
I don't represent to you, I don't pretend to you that by this announcement
we have found some new and revolutionary response to the problem.
It is just another contribution towards making it easier for some
in the community who do have a drug problem to do something about
it. It's a further contribution on the part of the Commonwealth to
encouraging the volunteer sector in the tremendous work that they
do in providing relief within the community.
I will be taking to the Premiers some further proposals in relation
to the nation-wide campaign against the drug problem. I do regard
this as a national issue. I do believe it carries national responsibilities
and it therefore commands the attention of the national Government.
But it can only be done effectively if we, all of us, we work together,
that if we focus on those areas of the fight against drugs where we
have common ground, that if we maximise our efforts in relation to
those areas and we continue to see it very much, as Mr Wilson said
in his introduction, being very much something that involves compassion,
compassion for the victims of drug abuse, a total intolerance and
a detestation of those who would profit from their misery and profit
from the trafficking in drugs.
And those two words, zero tolerance, have been much used and, perhaps,
over used in this debate in recent times. I want to make it clear
that I don't think there's anybody in the Australian community who
has anything other than maximum contempt and zero tolerance for those
in our community who would seek to make money out of human misery
and human suffering.
Like any other Federal member of Parliament or, indeed, State member
of Parliament who's done his or her job in recent years, I've confronted
the experience of discussing with parents left distraught by the loss
of children through the scourge of drugs. I've spent much time listening
to some of their harrowing stories and as a parent myself I can try
to understand the sense of loss and frustration and disillusionment
and despair and anger and all of the other human emotions that a parent
must go through when they experience that particular happening. I
can only say to them that the Government is trying. I don't pretend
that we've got all of the answers. I don't think anybody has the monopoly
of wisdom in this area. We are committing more resources. We do listen
to the advice of people who are affected. One of the problems is that
for as many parents affected in the ultimate way by this problem who
may, for example, support one course of action, there is just as many
who are violently opposed to that course of action. And the idea that
there is one sort of universal, coal face view about something like,
for example, a heroin trial or, indeed, anything else that is controversial
is totally mistaken. And that is part of the dilemma that this particular
issue throws up.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not coming here pretending that I've provided
or can provide all of the answers. I've come here because I'm personally
committed to trying to make a difference in this area. I'm personally
very concerned about the impact of drugs, not only on the lives who
are devastated by them but also the way in which it feeds into crime
activity, the way in which it makes our streets less safe, the way
in which it makes our homes more vulnerable to burglaries, the way
in which it makes our elderly people feel more threatened as they
go about doing things that for generations have been taken for granted,
that you can peacefully and safely do within the Australian community.
And every time an elderly lady's handbag is snatched in a busy suburban
street in Australia nine times out of ten that can be related to the
drug problem.
Now, all of these things collectively impose on all of us a huge responsibility.
I thank the welfare organisations for what they're doing. I want to
thank Major Brian Watters, the Chairman of the National Council, very
warmly for his compassionate interest, his great understanding of
this problem and his advice. I also want to thank the other members
of the Council, a number of whom who are here today. It's a very broadly
based Council. It's an organisation that represents the many points
of view that ought to be represented on this issue because there is
no one single right or correct solution but there is one single resolve,
I hope on the part of the Australian community, remembering difficult
though the problem is, that the perspective should be kept that some
two per cent of the Australian community have in some way been directly
involved in hard drugs. So we must keep a sense of perspective about
it whilst recognising, as Mr Wilson said in his introduction, it is
a long and difficult campaign ahead of us. But I'm encouraged by the
level of public support for doing something about it. I'm encouraged
by the fact that on other occasions Australia has faced enormous problems
of this magnitude and it's been able to effectively respond. And if
we continue to have the co-operation of State and Federal governments
of both political persuasions, indeed, of all political persuasions,
of the various welfare organisations that many of whom are represented
here today and also individuals within the community who've been affected
by this issue and touched by, then I think we really can make a difference.
'Tough on Drugs' is about trying to help the people who are addicted
to drugs, understanding in a compassionate way the emotional devastation
that that brings to their families. It's about opposing, in the most
unrelenting fashion, the criminal behaviour of those who seek to profit
from it. It's about providing decent treatment for people who want
treatment. It's about educating in a quite uncompromising, uncomplicated
way, our young against the dangers of drug taking, and that is tremendously
important. It's about doing all of those things. It's not about one
to the exclusion of the other. It's not about one in priority to the
other two. It's about a three-pronged approach - education, law enforcement,
treatment. They are the three things that we have to balance in our
campaign against drugs and I hope that today's announcement has made
an important practical contribution to realising that goal.
Thank you very much.