Page 4007 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
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This language indicates a model far closer to the government’s approach to the bush healing farm than to the clinical model Mr Milligan appeared to outline. However, rather than debating the interpretation of a decade-old press release, it is perhaps better to use the words of the founding members of the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm. To quote from founding member and Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm Advisory Board Co-Chair Roslyn Brown, in her submission to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal on the intention of the farm:
It will not be a place to detoxify or provide medical treatment for drug and alcohol addiction … we will be working towards healing the mind, body and soul and opening a new world view for our youth … there will be a strong focus on Aboriginal spirituality, culture and principles through recreational pursuits.
Ms Brown has been involved in the bush healing farm for more than 15 years and is one of the people who brought this concept to Canberra. She also reiterated this original vision at the official opening and declared that the vision for the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm remains intact. Ms Brown’s comments both to ACAT and at the opening clearly reinforce the government’s approach and what I have said previously in this place, that is, that it was never intended to be an alcohol or other drug clinical rehabilitation centre.
I acknowledge again, as I have said previously, that there have been ups and downs on the journey to the opening last week and that the government contributed to that confusion during the planning phase. I have on a number of occasions, and do so again, apologised to any members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community who felt misled as a result. There was a recognition that things, as they are, are not working for many of our First Peoples and, much like other countries have done before us, we need to try something different.
The bush healing farm was always intended to address root cause issues that led to substance abuse and treatment relapses and to reconnect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to land and culture with the aim of assisting them to better respond to life’s challenges.
I understand and accept that there are those in the community who have a different view about how the farm should be used. I understand that this is a new approach. However, it is one thing to discuss the broader needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, which I think we can all agree on, it is an entirely different one to discuss the historical intent of the farm. They are two distinct conversations, and we should not have them confused in this place by this motion.
It is not the government’s intention that the bush healing farm be a solution to every problem. We recognise that the bush healing farm is part of a system of responses to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that the farm must work within that system, which is why we will continue to build the farm’s relationship with the broader system.
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