Page 4121 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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As I have said in this place before, it is very clear that people are smoking cannabis in our community now and, because of the stigma created by people like Mr Hanson, Mr Coe, Mrs Dunne and the federal Attorney-General, these people will not come forward and seek health treatment. They will not because of the stigma that is created from the moral panic that the conservatives in this place are pushing.
I want to have a sensible system here. The attorney has been very clear today. This government is not encouraging people to use cannabis.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Coe, that is enough.
MR RATTENBURY: The government is not encouraging people to use cannabis but we are accepting that people use cannabis and we want to have a system where there is not a criminal consequence for that and that people will step around the stigma and come forward and actually have a conversation with medical professionals.
MRS DUNNE: Passing over the fact that I have been misrepresented, and I will deal with that later, minister, what extra resources will you be providing for mental health following the legalisation of cannabis, given that the system does not have enough mental health beds at the moment?
MR RATTENBURY: Could you start the question again?
MRS DUNNE: What resources will you be providing for mental health following the legislation in relation to cannabis, given that the system does not have enough mental health beds right now?
MR RATTENBURY: There are two issues in Mrs Dunne’s question. The first is that the government already provides significant resources to deal with alcohol and other drug issues in the ACT, to support people who do have dependency issues, overuse issues and the like. That is currently available. Obviously, the information that will be provided as part of the new legislation will highlight to people the pathways that are available to them. I do hope that people will avail themselves of those pathways, perhaps in ways that they have not done so before.
On the issue of the number of mental health beds, I can assure Mrs Dunne that we are very focused on that matter. That is why we have put in place a number of reforms in recent years, and are continuing to do so. I refer, for example, to the advent of the PACER model, the bringing on of additional beds in the ACT health system to deal with some of those spikes in demand that we have seen for acute mental health services.
It is very important that we do not focus just on the acute end of the spectrum. This is where we are doing significant work to focus on the mental wellbeing of our community, so that we avoid people escalating into the crisis system.
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