Chamber warns on drug action

The Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has raised concerns about the body established by the State Government to develop a Drug Action Plan for the Peninsula.

"The Peninsula Community Drug Action Team has unfortunately rejected our suggestion that a constitution be adopted for the group to ensure it is representative of the community as a whole," said Chamber president Mr Matthew Wales.

"A constitution and defined standing orders would also ensure that the operation of the Drug Action Team was more compliant with standard meeting procedures and therefore be more effective."

Mr Wales said the Government had stated that drug action teams, established as a consequence of the Drug Summit, were meant to enable communities to take action on drugs.

"It was the Chamber's understanding that the Drug Action Team would see people who live, work and raise their families in a community coming together to identify local drug trends and to develop plans to meet their specific needs.

"This includes the business community," said Mr Wales.

"Our concern is that the Team operates without advertising meeting dates and with no apparent membership criteria.

"It would be unfortunate if the committee were to be dominated by government agencies and drug and youth service providers and not the broader community.

"While we accept that great benefit will result from service providers and government agencies working together to plug service gaps, it is our understanding that this wasn't the sole intended purpose of the community drug action teams.

"The Chamber would encourage the Team to be more open and transparent as is rightly expected of Government projects.

"Our representatives on the committee have advised that the team is currently being asked to treat the meetings as confidential and we have other concerns about the meeting procedures and facilitation methods used."

Mr Wales said the Chamber was also concerned that the Drug Action Plan was being developed without any reference to evidence of local drug trends or the ability to measure the effectiveness of the plan.

"The Bureau of Crime Statistics has told us that crime statistics which would enable us to analyse trends on the Peninsula over a five-year period are available but would cost more than $4000.

"These have not been provided to the team.

"It would seem logical to the business community that such statistics should be made freely available to the committee as a prime source of benchmarking information.

"The Chamber and the business community have a lot at stake as a result of drug-related crime in the community.

"Drug use and trafficking are often an open problem on the streets including in the business precincts.

"We want to ensure that the Drug Action Team is fully representative and transparent so that everyone has an opportunity to put forward their ideas to curb drug use.

"Consequently, we will continue to liaise closely with the Government to ensure that we don’t waste this important initiative."

Media release, April 4