DV, ICE NEED NEW THINKING

WHETHER real benefits are achieved in ploughing almost $1 million a year into roadside testing for use of the drug ice remains to be seen.

The Gold Coast, with its courts a daily reminder of the dreadful consequences of this particular drug, will welcome any funding in this State Budget to try to rein in the spread of drug use, along with the tragedy of domestic violence – another unwanted daily drama in our courts.

But what the public will also want to see is a new vision for dealing with use of illicit drugs and in stopping the scourge of domestic violence that is destroying families.

As experts, including leading police, now say, Australia has reached the point where it cannot arrest its way out of the drug problem. It is too widespread and while Treasurer Curtis Pitt is to be applauded for finding additional funding to tackle the problem and for saying all the right things, the authorities from the State Government down to street level have to be smarter, because throwing money at the so-called drug war has achieved very little.

The same applies for domestic violence. The Government has already beefed up legislation to deal with perpetrators and has allocated funds in this Budget for specialist courts, already operating here, and to operate shelters, housing and support services. But that in itself is an admission of failure. If strategies in dealing with family violence are working, then why the need for shelters?

The Gold Coast is an interesting litmus test for the rest of the nation. It comprises all sections of Australian society. If old methods work with drugs or domestic violence, we would see that happening here.

But we don’t. No matter how many times police raid ice labs or shield frightened women and children, these social cancers keep spreading.

Queensland needs radical rethinking. It needs ways to stop the black market that is making millions of dollars for drug lords.

Yes, the police need a huge injection of funding. On the Gold Coast, the numbers of frontline officers are woefully inadequate.

But we need to approach our problems from new directions. That is what Queenslanders want to hear, rather than just announcing funds for methods that have not won any “wars’’.