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House of Representatives COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Official Committee Hansard HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STANDING COMMITTEE ON FAMILY AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS Reference: Substance abuse in Australian communities THURSDAY, 15 AUGUST 2002 CANBERRA BY AUTHORITY OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTERNET The Proof and Official Hansard transcripts of Senate committee hearings, some House of Representatives committee hearings and some joint com- mittee hearings are available on the Internet. Some House of Representa- tives committees and some joint committees make available only Official Hansard transcripts. The Internet address is: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard To search the parliamentary database, go to: http://search.aph.gov.au HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STANDING COMMITTEE ON FAMILY AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS Thursday, 15 August 2002 Members: Mrs Hull (Chair), Mrs Irwin (Deputy Chair), Mr Cadman, Mrs Draper, Mr Dutton, Mr Edwards, Ms Ellis, Ms George, Mr Pearce, Mr Quick, Mr Cameron Thompson and Mr Wakelin Members in attendance: Mr Cadman, Mr Dutton, Mr Edwards, Ms George, Mrs Hull, Mrs Irwin, Mr Pearce, Mr Quick, Mr Cameron Thompson and Mr Wakelin Terms of reference for the inquiry: To report and recommend on: The social and economic costs of substance abuse, with particular regard to: • family relationships; • crime, violence (including domestic violence), and law enforcement; • road trauma; • workplace safety and productivity; and • health care costs. WITNESSES ALLSOP, Associate Professor Steven John, Acting Director, Practice Development, Drug and Alcohol Office Western Australia..............................................................................................................1168 BRESSINGTON, Ms Ann Marie, Chief Executive Officer, DrugBeat, South Australia......................1136 GARDNER, Dr Ian Robert, Immediate Past President and Councillor, Australasian Faculty of Occupational Medicine ...............................................................................................................................1168 HANBURY, Ms Julie Tasma, Coordinator, HELP (Helping Empower Local Parents), Local Drug Action Groups Inc. ............................................................................................................................1136 HILL, Professor David John, Director, Cancer Control Research Institute, The Cancer Council Victoria.........................................................................................................................................................1082 MADDEN, Ms Annie, Executive Officer, Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League...........1111 MATTICK, Professor Richard, Director, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales..................................................................................................................1082 MUNRO, Mr Geoffrey, Director, Centre for Youth Drug Studies.........................................................1136 PATTON, Professor George, Director, Centre for Adolescent Health ..................................................1082 ROCHE, Professor Ann, Director, National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, Flinders University of South Australia......................................................................................................1111 SAUNDERS, Professor John Barrington, Professor of Alcohol and Drug Studies, University of Queensland, and Member, Australian National Council on Drugs........................................................1082 SHARP, Mr Trevor James, National Coordinator, The Building Trades Group of Unions Drug and Alcohol Committee ..............................................................................................................................1168 TRIMINGHAM, Mr Tony, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Family Drug Support ................. 1136 WATTERS, Major Brian Fletcher, Chairman, Australian National Council on Drugs...................... 1079 WEBSTER, Professor Ian William, President, Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia ........ 1111 WILLIAMS, Mr Glenn Allan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Focus on the Family Australia ...................................................................................................................................................... 1136 Thursday, 15 August 2002 REPS FCA 1077 Committee met at 8.33 a.m. CHAIR—I declare open this inquiry into substance abuse in Australian communities. Our first item of business is to receive submissions. Resolved (on motion by Mr Quick): That submissions Nos 231, 233 to 234, 236 to 237, 239, 241 to 243, 245 to 248, 252, 255 to 257 and 259 to 265 be accepted as evidence and authorised for publication as part of the inquiry into substance abuse. CHAIR—This morning we are here to commence our two-day roundtable on substance abuse. On behalf of the committee, I would like to welcome you all to the first day of the roundtable. Today’s seminar has been organised by the House of Representatives Family and Community Affairs Committee as part of the committee’s inquiry into substance abuse. The proceedings will be important in helping the committee refine its thinking on the subject of substance abuse in Australian communities. In particular, it will help us draw our conclusions about substance abuse in Australia and the recommendations that we might make to the government on this topic. Substance abuse is an important issue in today’s society because it causes great social and economic harm. The effects of smoking and the abuse of alcohol are particularly costly, and illicit drug taking is a focus of concern for us all. To give you a sketch of the history to this inquiry, it was commenced during the 39th Parliament when that committee fought quite hard to obtain terms of reference for an inquiry into the social and economic costs of substance abuse. The committee brief under the terms of reference was to pay particular attention to the five topics that are the subject of today’s seminar—that is, health, families, roads, workplace and crime, and violence and law enforcement. The committee of the 39th Parliament carried out considerable work into the inquiry, and by the time the parliament was dissolved last year it had received 222 submissions and had also travelled extensively throughout Australia. All in all, a vast amount of information was collected and then last September, just before the end of the 39th Parliament, the committee tabled a discussion paper that summarised this information. That paper is Where to next? Inquiry into substance abuse in Australian communities. Unlike a committee report, the discussion paper did not contain conclusions nor recommendations to the government. This is the task that the new committee formed in this parliament has taken on. We have taken on the same terms of reference as in the last parliament and will be building on and finalising the previous committee’s work. We have planned this roundtable to assist us in this process. Predominantly, our committee members are new committee members, and they have undertaken some visits during July in order to familiarise themselves with various aspects of substance abuse within Australian communities. They found that very informative and, I think, very productive towards coming to some resolution. The two days that we have in front of us now will be comprise of five main sessions that correspond to the inquiry’s terms of reference. We will be covering health care, families and workplace safety and productivity today; and road trauma, crime and violence and law enforcement tomorrow. The format of the program will be presentations by invited speakers, followed by questioning of the speakers by the committee members. All of this is covered by FAMILY AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS FCA 1078 REPS Thursday, 15 August 2002 parliamentary privilege. Members of the public have been invited to attend as observers but will not be taking part in the formal part of the roundtable. The presenters have each been asked to briefly outline the main issues in their topics, current approaches to dealing with these issues and options for improved or new approaches into the future. We look forward to listening and learning over the next two days. On behalf of the House of Representatives Family and Community Affairs Committee, I would like to sincerely thank each and every presenter and participant for giving up their valuable time in their hectic lifestyles to assist us in delivering a beneficial outcome to this inquiry. I would also like to thank those members of the public who have given up their time and who have been interested enough to attend in order to understand the future of substance abuse in our community. The next two days will be very intense and on a tight time schedule. If I could be so bold, I remind presenters that we really do need to stick to time for our presentations. There will be ample opportunity for you to expand your comments and be more informative to the committee during the question and answer segment. Once again, I welcome you all. I would like to now invite Major Watters, from the Australian National Council on Drugs, to start the proceedings with a brief outline of the role and work of the ANCD before we start the first of the main sessions on health. FAMILY AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS Thursday, 15 August 2002 REPS FCA 1079 [8.39 a.m.] WATTERS, Major Brian Fletcher, Chairman, Australian National Council on Drugs Major Watters—Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to congratulate you and each of the committee
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