Ice Taskforce

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Police in his role as the chair of the Ice Taskforce.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Reported by ABC News, an analysis of the city's sewage has shown that methamphetamine use in Adelaide rose 25 per cent in the past year and tripled over five years. Data analysed by the University of South Australia shows that across metropolitan Adelaide there were more than 450 doses of ice each week per 1,000 people in December 2016, up from a little over 150 doses a week in 2012. South Australian Network of Drug and Alcohol Services executive officer Michael White said more support and a broader range of rehab services were desperately needed. It was further reported that SA is the only state to not establish a dedicated 24/7 drug and alcohol support hotline.

Unfortunately, as we know, drug use and its destructive social impacts do not confine themselves to the hours of 8.30am to 10pm, which are the current contact hours of the Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia hotline. The final report of the National Ice Taskforce identified the importance of having 24-hour access to drug and alcohol services responsive to individual needs, particularly where ice use is concerned, and stated that telephone counselling was a vital engagement mechanism. My questions for the minister are:

1. As recommended in the final report of the National Ice Taskforce, when will the minister establish a dedicated 24/7 hotline for drug and alcohol-related issues? With methamphetamine use in Adelaide rising by 25 per cent in the past year, how does the minister, as the chair of the Ice Taskforce, aim to reduce the number of users?

2. What other measures has the government put in place to provide timely support and medical advice to ice users and their families?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for her important question. As I foreshadowed yesterday, the state government has undertaken a very significant piece of community consultation in the lead-up to developing our response to the Ice Taskforce. This has been an exhaustive process, but indeed a very necessary one. Certainly, that came through by virtue of the strength of feeling and the strong attendance that we received at each and every one of the community forums that we went to around the state regionally but also a number of forums within metropolitan Adelaide.

The Hon. Ms Lee is right to point out that there has been a substantial increase shown through the wastewater testing that has occurred in South Australia regarding crystal methamphetamine. It is probably important to note that this isn't a problem that is exclusive to South Australia: indeed, it is a problem that is experienced throughout the country, including the issue of the disproportionate representation of regional users of ice in comparison to some metropolitan locations.

It is a national problem, but it is a national problem that South Australia is very much feeling the full force of, hence the Ice Taskforce development. It is important to note—which I did not go into yesterday in my earlier response—that there is already an extraordinary amount of work going on within the community, at a federal government and a state government level and also within the non-government sector, in trying to tackle the issue of drug use generally, including the use of ice. This task force has never put itself out to be somehow the finder of all solutions or silver bullets regarding this substantial problem.

Instead, the task force has been charged with a very specific responsibility, and that is to see what things the state government, in its capacity, can contribute to reducing the amount of harm going on within our community. There are some levers available to federal governments and there are some levers available to the non-government sector, but equally there are some levers that are exclusively available to the state government. It has been our task to establish what things the state government can do to help mitigate the impact of ice. We are not going to fix this problem. This problem is going to be here for some time yet, but I think it is right to put our minds to what we can do to help minimise the impact.

In due course, I expect within coming weeks, the state government will announce its response arising out of the task force's effort. That will contain within it a number of measures that seek to address the issue. Of course, those responses need to be contemplated in the context of cost and in terms of the state budget. Inevitably, when one wants to undertake various reforms, there is a cost attached to that, including the idea of having a 24-hour call centre. What we have to do is weigh up how the South Australian community, particularly those people suffering from this insidious drug, are going to get the best bang out of their taxpayer dollar to actually have an impact on the ground.

I can confirm that we have heard the feedback the Hon. Ms Lee refers to during the course of the task force's effort. Many ideas were thrown up during the task force. Our challenge as a government is to do what all good governments are required to do, and that is to try to balance up all those best ideas and make sure that we come up with the right policy mix, which we have to develop in the context of an environment with finite resources. We will announce our response in due course. Like I said, we do not expect to fix the problem, but we do very much hope to have a positive impact in the right direction.