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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2276 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

illness was not accompanied, unfortunately, by adequate community health support. Therefore, I am ashamed to say, they are highly represented in places where emergency relief is provided, as well as in our prisons.

Organisations such as Directions ACT, who provide wide-ranging support for people dependent on drugs, are in inadequate and unacceptable accommodation. That brings me to the question of how much we respect the work of non-government service providers. In fact, one of my concerns about this budget is that we have seen public servants recognised in terms of accommodation increases, but we are not seeing the same respect and consideration given to non-government workers.

Slightly off the topic-but not really-in looking at how we provide pay increases across the public service, there is a case for making pay increases according to the level of salary. I get really concerned when we see across-the-board pay increases because there is a huge gap between the lowest and the highest paid in the government sector and public service. It would seem to me much more equitable and fair for increases, if there are any, to take into account the salary. Surely the person on $27,000 a year needs a salary increase more than the person on $90,000. If we did that, perhaps we could use some money to support the non-government sector so that they can start to catch up in terms of salaries and conditions.

When the ACT government sells off large blocks of land in Canberra city, it does not ensure that the most marginalised people and the organisations who provide them with support are properly considered in the planning and development. I am talking particularly about the Bunda Street development, of course. In order to address the problems associated with drug dependence, the ACT government needs to value the community sector more highly and take these needs into account in planning and service delivery.

Finally, the question is: where do we go from here? The Canberra community needs to forge some kind of common agreement about the scale of the problems. It is not simply a question of government putting in place the right programs; we need to share an understanding, community wide, of what is necessary. I would argue that we need to look at trials of medically supplied heroin and medically supervised injecting rooms, among other strategies, to assist people dependent on drugs. We need to embrace a wide-ranging program of drug law reform and unpick some of the unhelpful and unhealthy links between crime and drugs of various kinds.

I totally agree with what Mr Stanhope said: when you look at the statistics for heroin use, you see the level of injecting that is occurring. The use of ecstasy in our communities is pretty well acceptable now across a lot of the culture of young people. Education is critical, and the education that works-this is through conversations I have had with young people and first-hand stories; I know it is anecdotal, which is why we want a substance abuse task force-is when they see the impact of taking too many Es and what that does to your body.

There are some suggestions that young people have been talking about for quite a long time-certainly the time I have been in the Assembly looking at these issues-which have not been adequately picked up. Some of the non-government service organisations understand that; they work with the reality every day. But, unfortunately, policy makers

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