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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-06-18 Daily Xml
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KALPARRIN COMMUNITY

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation questions about Kalparrin Community's rehabilitation centre at Murray Bridge.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: I recently visited Kalparrin Community's drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility near Murray Bridge. Unfortunately, the commonwealth has pulled funding following an audit which was conducted over two years ago. I have seen firsthand the good work and the crucial service that this facility provides to this and other communities. It is my understanding that this facility provides a unique service in that it allows families to stay with those in recovery. There isn't anything else like it in this state. However, after the commonwealth funding ceases, they will have little option but to dramatically reduce services. My questions to the minister are:

1. Does the state government have the capacity to pick up the shortfall of federal government funding withdrawal?

2. If not, will the minister or his department try to work through the federal government's concerns so as to have the federal funding reinstated so that South Australia does not lose this incredibly vital service?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and I commend him on his persistence in pursuing this issue through the parliament. I know he has an ongoing interest in the area, and I commend him for that as well. This is a matter that falls pretty squarely under the portfolio of responsibilities of the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse. However, I have been able to advise this chamber in the past on the matter briefly, and I will do so again.

I understand that directors of Kalparrin Community were told in early 2012 that the commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing could no longer fund the Kalparrin drug and alcohol rehabilitation program under their ongoing programs. I acknowledge that the Aboriginal people resident in South Australia seeking access to culturally appropriate and sensitive residential rehabilitation services are significantly affected by this decision. I understand that they receive a mixture of funding sources, which is primarily from the Australian government departments but which also includes some funding from the state government through Housing SA and Country Health SA.

I am advised that Country Health SA Local Health Network continues to help the Murray Bridge and surrounding Aboriginal communities with a provision of funding to Kalparrin Community Inc. to operate a mobile assistance patrol. The program operates with harm minimisation focus and supports individual and family access to broader drug and alcohol services through counselling referral. The South Australian government continues to provide its share of its services up there.

I understand that the community are disappointed with the federal government's decision, but I also understand from I think my last meeting with the federal minister up in Port Augusta that they are committed to providing drug and alcohol rehabilitation services to the Aboriginal communities of South Australia, and the project scope that they are looking at will include the north-west and south-east regions of South Australia.

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