Tanczos Nandor: Budget Debate 
Tanczos Nandor: Budget Debate 
[Volume:608;Page:5954] 
NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 The Green co-leader Rod Donald and previous Green speakers have already expressed our general opposition to this Budget. I am particularly concerned about the issues around tertiary funding in particular the continued unwillingness of this Government to address what I think are the real issues of funding in the tertiary sector. I am referring to the levels of funding that are needed to ensure that facilities and services are maintained at an acceptable level and that staff salaries are able to be internationally competitive or even remotely comparable. That is on one side. Of course on the other side are the issues around the student loan scheme. Although I acknowledge that there is an expanded eligibility for the student allowance and that some students will benefit from that there is a lack of anything in this Budget for the majority of students. A lot of students were hanging out for the fee maxima and we are sad to see that it has largely been set at a level that provides for significant fee increases for the majority of students. Postgraduate students have been left out altogether. So we are saddened by those things. 
I will concentrate most of my speech on a different area. I acknowledge that the Government has taken some small but useful steps in the area of drug policy. The Green Party has been calling for more focus on effective drug education and treatment since we became an independent Green Party in this House. We led the way with the first new initiative around drug education for many years last year when we negotiated half a million dollars with the then Minister of Youth Affairs Laila Harré for work in a critical area where there was a glaring gap in knowledge and that was simply what effective drug education is how one does it and how one knows what is good. That was envisaged as a first step to better funding for that area. 
I was concerned that with the new Government that would be dropped as it was my idea. To its credit the Government has picked up and continued that funding. We are seeing the funding rolled out over 3 years. In the first year it will be around information gathering and analysis and literature reviews identifying evidence-based best practice and key messages. In the second year 2003-04 it will be around resource developments guidelines for effective evaluation standards for effective drug education and criteria for purchasers of drug education to use when deciding which programmes meet their needs. In the last year 2004-05 it will be around publishing standards and guidelines and developing options for community pilots. It is good to see those things going ahead. That is to the credit of Mr Anderton and the ministerial committee on drug policy and it is good to see that moving forward. 
Credit is also due to the ministerial committee on drug policy for following through on a number of other useful initiatives. We are seeing funding going to 15 community action initiatives based on the model of the Community Action on Youth and Drugs programmes. We are seeing $2.5 million go into those per year and that is extremely good because those are some of the few programmes that have shown any evidence of being useful. The Minister Mr Anderton is announcing a 19-point programme to deal with methamphetamine. Although the details are sketchy at this stage he has said the emphasis is on dealing with those who supply and make the drug but also on having compassionate treatment facilities for the victims. He says: “We need to rehabilitate those who are on the drug and show no tolerance for those who are manufacturing or selling it.” That is more like the right approach. We need to take a less punitive approach and we need to recognise that the issues of drug abuse will not be solved by the police but by education and treatment. There is also funding for police teams for the clean-up of methamphetamine labs and that is also extremely good because there are real environmental risk problems with clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. 
I congratulate the ministerial committee on drug policy on those issues. In the past I have offered to work with the Government on those kinds of issues and although that has not been taken up I would like to repeat that offer. Although Mr Anderton and myself often disagree on drug policy issues I think the Minister does deserve some congratulation on those efforts.