Page 2120 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 8 May 2012
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If that is the case this will definitely have an impact on ACT government alcohol and other drugs services. There is absolutely no way that the ACT government can step in to fill this gap if it is what the sector are telling us, in the order of a million dollars. So we will have to await further details from the commonwealth as to what that means and then look at how we manage that situation, because we do work closely with the non-government sector in this area of health service delivery. We do need probably to wait for the detail and then try and work through what it means.
I have had a number of organisations coming to me through the budget process who have been advised that their funding has changed or it is being stopped by the commonwealth. The ACT government budget simply cannot accept that it has to pick up all of that funding. We do not have the capacity to do it. So we will look at whatever other ways we can to help the sector to go through these changes, if in fact they are coming, as the sector expects.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary, Ms Bresnan.
MS BRESNAN: Minister, was there any discussion of the proposed cuts through the health ministers conference, and was there any consultation conducted with government about what was proposed?
MS GALLAGHER: Certainly not at ministerial level, no, but I would have to check with my directorate as to whether they have been given any advice from commonwealth health about any impending changes. But it certainly was not, and it would not be normal practice necessarily for that to occur. As I saw the correspondence I got from members of the alcohol and other drug sector, it did appear to me to be budget decision related—stopping programs. I think that has been speculated about in the press—that some of the way that the commonwealth will turn the budget to surplus will be to stop programs as of 30 June.
MS HUNTER: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, is it the case that the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy will lose its funding and is likely to close, which will leave the ACT without a drug and alcohol peer support and consumer representative body?
MS GALLAGHER: I have heard those concerns. I have not seen anything concrete. So we probably do need to work through that with the Department of Health and Ageing. I think CAHMA do an excellent job. We are working with them in partnership on the naloxone trial at the moment. So we would want to ensure that there was a peer based service that continues to run in the ACT. But as I said, we cannot just automatically pick up the slack if that slack is created by the commonwealth. We are doing it in far too many cases already.
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