Inquiry into trial drug-testing regime in three cities hears government has no specific data on their treatment capacity

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The federal government did not know the length of waiting lists for local drug treatment services when it chose three trial sites to drug test welfare recipients, an inquiry has been told.



Drug experts have warned the lack of drug and alcohol treatment services poses a significant challenge to the government’s plan, and say a $10m boost their capability is a “drop in the ocean”.

Drug policy researcher Alison Ritter told Guardian Australia earlier this month that already stretched drug treatment services would not be able to meet the added demand.

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“Our current estimate is that we’re currently meeting about 50% of the demand,” Ritter said. “So we would need to double the treatment places in order to meet current demand. And that … 50% is a conservative estimate.”

The government plans to drug test 5,000 welfare recipients in Logan, Queensland, Bankstown-Canterbury in Sydney, and Mandurah in Western Australia.

Welfare recipients will be referred for treatment after two failed tests, and risk having their welfare cut off if they fail to engage with drug services.

A Senate inquiry into the government’s welfare reforms heard on Wednesday the department did not have specific data on waiting lists for drug treatment services in the three trial sites before they were chosen.



Department of Social Services payment policy group manager, Cath Halbert, said the government did have knowledge of the number of services operating in each location, but not the extent of their waiting lists.

“I don’t have the information, but we’re certainly talking to the state health departments about, if there are waiting lists, how long they are,” Halbert said.

Labor senator Murray Watt asked: “Was the length of the waiting list in each of those locations established prior to the decision being made?”

Halbert replied: “We don’t, and the Department of Health doesn’t, as I understand it, have access to that information directly. We need to get it from the state governments.

“We know what services have been funded, and health has an idea of what was expected – the number of people to be serviced etc – from the services they fund, but at a given point of time, we didn’t have information of, on that day, how many people were waiting for that particular service, but we’re gathering that information now.”



She said the department was confident that treatment places would be available to meet the added demand. The policy also ensures that those who are waiting for treatment aren’t penalised, as long as they have committed to accessing help.

Halbert said the numbers involved in the trial were relatively small, meaning the added demand would not be significant. She also cautioned against only looking at residential rehabilitation bed availability, saying not everyone in the trial would be referred for that level of treatment.

“We’re talking about relatively low numbers … 5,000 being tested across the three trial sites, we’re expecting around 420-450 to test positive once, and then about 100-120 go through to a medical assessment,” Halbert said.



“So about 120 people might go through to the medical assessment, we don’t expect all of those to require treatment, but that would be the maximum, and that’s spread across three trial sites,” she said.

Halbert said welfare recipients could also travel for treatment.

Greens senator, Rachel Siewert, described the lack of knowledge on waiting lists as “astounding”.

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“We know there is enormous unmet need for drug and alcohol treatment broadly in Australia and that sort of detail should have been essential when considering the trial sites,” Siewert said.



“It is becoming increasingly clear that the government has not done its due diligence when it comes to consultation, evidence and information gathering on a measure that is going to make life harder for vulnerable people struggling with addiction.”

Earlier in the inquiry, Ritter, who works for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, told the committee that the government had resisted requests for the release of detailed data showing the extent of unmet demand in each state and territory. Ritter said she had asked the government to release the data. It had not been released.