Alcohol Abuse Funding Inadequate

The Labor Government is playing with peoples' lives, especially those people who are suffering from chronic abuse of alcohol, when all it could do was to provide a miserly $1m for alcohol treatment places in the 2006-07 Budget, according to Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services, Dr Richard Lim.

"This pittance of an allocation for alcohol abuse is all window dressing by the Martin Labor Government – too little too late – while levels of antisocial and drunken behaviour have gone through the roof,” Dr Lim said.

"Just last year alone, 22,000 drunks were taken into protective custody, and this government is prepared to put in just $1m to deal with them? That is putting in the equivalent of $50 per drunk per year.

"But it gets even worse, today's announcement shows that only $560,000 of the $1m has been allocated for treatment, bringing the allocation per person to $28 per drunk per year.

"The Labor Government will have no capacity to establish an Alcohol Court and its obligation to obtain the services of expert clinicians to advise the Court on appropriate treatments with the allocation of a mere $200,000.

"Meanwhile, effective programs such as the Day Patrol, which managed to get a reprieve through generous Commonwealth funding, remains uncertain as there is no clarity as to what level of funding, if any, will be forthcoming from this Labor Government in the 2006-07 Budget,” Dr Lim.

"The Martin Labor Government has failed over the last five years to deal with antisocial behaviour across the Territory. It is an indictment of his government's policies that the Minister for Central Australia and also the Minister for Health freely admits that he is fearful to enter a town camp after 2pm, when prior to the change of government he had felt safe to visit town camps.

"Alcohol abuse and the consequential antisocial behaviour deserves greater attention from the Martin Labor Government. What the Territory does not need is for the Government to play cynical political games,” Dr Lim said.

2006-04-27