I am very pleased to announce the membership of the independent Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation. The establishment of the Foundation was foreshadowed earlier in the year and funding details were provided in the Budget papers.
Abuse of alcohol is a major cause of preventable death and hospitalisation in Australia. As well as the damage caused directly by alcohol abuse it is also a significant factor in many road accidents, falls, drownings, suicides and mental disorders. The financial cost alone is estimated at $4.5 billion per year.
The government has earmarked $115 million for the Foundation over the next four years to fund community-based education and rehabilitation projects to prevent alcohol and other licit substance abuse. I am sure that the Foundation will also be able to attract donations from the business sector and the wider community to build on the government's contribution.
The Chairman of the Foundation will be Professor Ian Webster. Professor Webster is exceptionally well qualified for this role and is highly respected in the drug and alcohol field. He is the President of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia, Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Suicide Prevention, Chairman of the New South Wales Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs and a member of the Australian National Council on Drugs. In addition to his academic expertise and important work in public health policy, Professor Webster has practical experience, including as the visiting physician to the Matthew Talbot Hostel for the homeless.
The Foundation will bring together a group of people who will offer a wide range of perspectives and expertise. A full list of members is attached. I thank each member for being available to serve the community in this way and am confident that they will ensure the success of the Foundation in achieving its objectives.
The Foundation has several members in common with the Australian National Council on Drugs. This reflects the expertise of these members in the areas of both licit and illicit drugs and will ensure effective links between the two bodies. The funding of the Foundation is consistent with advice from the Council, chaired by Major Brian Watters, which has supported the funding of activities to reduce the harm associated with alcohol abuse. The Foundation's work in funding education and rehabilitation activities will complement the policy role of the Council.
3 July 2001
Professor Ian Webster AO (Chairman)
Professor Webster is President of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia, Chair of the National Advisory Council on Suicide Prevention, a Member of the Australian National Council on Drugs and Chair of the New South Wales Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs.
Until his recent retirement, Professor Webster was Clinical Associate Dean in the University of New South Wales in the South Western Sydney Clinical School and Professor of Public Health and Director of the Division of Population Health. He is visiting physician to the Matthew Talbot Hostel for the homeless.
Ms Cheryl Bart
Ms Cheryl Bart is Chairman of the Australian Sports Foundation Ltd and Chairman of its Audit Committee. She is also a Commissioner on the Board of Soccer Australia. She holds a number of directorships, including the Sydney Ports Corporation, ETSA Utilities and the Institute for Biomedical Research at Sydney University. Ms Bart also holds directorships with a number of private companies, and is past chairperson of a charitable organisation.
Dr Ngiare Brown
Dr Ngiare Brown is currently working with World Vision Australia Indigenous Programs as the Preventative Health Coordinator. Dr Brown holds a Bachelor of Medicine from Newcastle University and is the Executive Officer of the Indigenous Doctors Association. Previously she was the Indigenous Health Adviser to the Australian Medical Association.
Reverend Tim Costello
Ordained a Baptist Minister in 1987, the Reverend Tim Costello rebuilt the congregation at the St Kilda Baptist Church, opened a drop-in centre and worked in a legal practice for those for whom the law is normally inaccessible. As elected Mayor of St Kilda Council in 1993, he became well known for championing the cause of local democracy. In 1995 he was appointed Director of the Urban Mission Unit of the Collins Street Baptist Church, which offers hospitality to homeless youth in Melbourne's city centre. The Reverend Costello is a spokesperson for the Interchurch Gambling Taskforce, a member of the Australian Earth Charter Committee, a Council member of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and was an Ambassador for the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.
Mr David Crosbie
The Chief Executive Officer of Odyssey House, Victoria, Mr David Crosbie manages a broad range of programs including residential rehabilitation, counselling, family support, youth outreach and early intervention programs for parents of adolescents. Between August 1993 and December 1999, Mr Crosbie was the Chief Executive Officer of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA). He is currently a member of the Australian National Council on Drugs, an editor of the Drug and Alcohol Review and serves on the National Expert Advisory Committee on Alcohol.
Dr Peter d'Abbs
Dr Peter d'Abbs currently holds a joint appointment with Menzies
School of Health Research, Darwin, and Queensland Health, Cairns. Prior to joining the Menzies School in 1992 he was in charge of research and evaluation at the Drug and Alcohol Bureau, Territory Health Services. He has conducted and published extensive research relating to alcohol policy and community-based programs in northern Australia, involving both regional towns and indigenous communities. Dr d'Abbs has also conducted research and policy analyses relating to kava and petrol sniffing. In Cairns, he is currently involved in developing an alcohol strategy for Cape York communities.
Mr Nick Gill
Mr Nick Gill has worked in the field of Alcohol and Other Drugs for the last ten years, and has been associated with harm reduction programmes since 1990, as well as working closely with 12-Step self-help groups. He has worked extensively as a Counsellor with people experiencing substance misuse difficulties and in 1997 he developed Australia's first Residential Cannabis Rehabilitation program in Adelaide. In 1999 he moved to Alice Springs, where he is presently Manager of Drug and Alcohol Services Association, and in March 2001 was appointed to the Australian National Council on Drugs. Mr Gill is a member of the Workforce Development Reference Group of the Alcohol and other Drug Council of Australia.
Ms Anne Mosey
Ms Anne Mosey has worked with remote Aboriginal communities for over 10 years in the Northern Territory and Western Australia to assist them in the development of strategies concerning alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing. She has established 15 Remote Area Night Patrols (a community policing programme). Ms Mosey is on the board of the Drug and Alcohol Services Association, Alice Springs, and is a member of the Central Australian Inhalant Substance Abuse Network and the People's Alcohol Action Coalition.
Professor Tim Stockwell
Professor Tim Stockwell has been Director of the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Western Australia (formerly the National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse) since June 1996 and served as Deputy Director for seven years prior to that. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University, obtained a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, and is a qualified clinical psychologist.
Dr Bernadette Tobin
Dr Bernadette Tobin is Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics in Health Care at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. She was educated in her discipline (which is philosophical ethics) at the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge. Dr Tobin is currently a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee (a principal committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council) and the New South Wales Ministerial Advisory Council on Biotechnology.
Mr Scott Wilson
Mr Scott Wilson is the State Director, Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council (SA) Inc based in Adelaide. Mr Wilson has presented a number of papers on behalf of ADAC at both national and international conferences on indigenous drug and alcohol issues and was awarded the Alcohol and other Drug Council of Australia Australia Day Achievement Medallion in 1997.
3 July 2001