BREAKING THE ICE GO
SEARCH for “Cairns rehab centre” on Google and the first three results are for an organisation that rehabilitates sick and injured turtles.
The LNP has vowed to fix the dire situation if elected to govern the state by establishing a $9.5 million dedicated multi-bed drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Cairns. It includes $2 million to provide fly-in, fly-out services for treatment to patients in remote Cape York communities.
LNP leader Tim Nicholls will announce the plan today.
Mr Nicholls will announce today a $52.21 million plan to take ice off Queensland streets.
“Cairns will be one of the four regional centres that will receive a dedicated, state-ofthe-art, multi-bed treatment facility to help people kick their drug and alcohol habits and provide them with ongoing support,” he said.
“This drug doesn’t discriminate and it has devastating impacts on users, their friends, their families and the community. Labor still has no plan after three years to tackle ice in our communities or to provide the services Queenslanders need to tackle drug addiction.”
Community leaders have been crying out for a rehabilitation centre in the Far North.
Anglicare chief executive Ian Roberts earlier this year said the need was “desperate”.
Figures obtained by the Cairns Post in May showed the number of new clients seeking help at the city’s Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs service jumped by more than 500 in 12 months, while health workers saw more than 27,000 people last year.
Drug arrests in the Northern policing region were up to 5247 in 2016-17 compared with 3504 four years earlier.
State Government data revealed 73 children in the Far North were removed from their homes last year because their parents were addicted to ice. More than half of those children were less than five years old.
The Salvation Army opened a $4.69 million 52-bed rehabilitation facility in Townsville last month after securing a $1 million grant from the Palaszczuk Government.
Mr Nicholls said the Cairns facility would be part of a comprehensive LNP plan to tackle the scourge of ice across the state, “rather than the endless reviews and talkfests” by Labor.