The Federal Parliament`s Law Enforcement Committee is urging the government to redistribute funding for the country`s fight against methamphetamine because South Australia, the worst hit by the methamphetamine, is not being treated fairly.
According to the allocation of funds for the final year of the National Strategy to Combat methamphetamine, South Australia will receive about A $ two hundred and eighty thousand, which is less than the quota required for the South Australian population. The ignored fact is that South Australia is almost the state with the highest methamphetamine usage in Australia.
The Federal Assembly`s Law Enforcement Committee wants South Australia`s government to conduct wastewater analysis and has obtained drug usage data, based on which $241.5 million in drug treatment funds will be reallocated, rather than based on the lost timeliness of the 2011 census.
But a spokesman for the Ministry of Health rejected the proposal and questioned the reliability of wastewater analysis.
A report by the Federal Parliament`s Law Enforcement Committee showed that Kunn and New States received the most money, but wastewater analysis showed that the population in those regions used only half of methamphetamine.
It is reported that suburban health minister McKenzie will not accept the committee`s recommendations. A spokesman for the health department said the results of the wastewater analysis were concentrated in specific communities and did not show trends in drug use across a wide range of areas.
The latest waste water report from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission covers 61 percent of Australia`s population, or about 14.2 million people.
Senator RexPatrick of the Nick Xenophon team will write to Health Secretary Greg Hunt to seek ministerial intervention.
"it is clear that waste water analysis shows that South Australia is facing a surge in methamphetamine usage," he said. There is no reasonable evidence that we should ignore the results of this analysis. Don`t take it seriously and distribute the money elsewhere, and this kind of rite has devastating consequences for the South Australian community. "
The Law Enforcement Committee of the Federal Parliament expressed concern about the current funding allocation model, which recommended that the health sector update the model in order to achieve a reasonable allocation of funds by fiscal year 2019-2020. It is also recommended that the 2016 census data be combined with the results of wastewater analysis. The commission`s report recommends that wastewater analysis be used to help channel resources to areas where drug usage is high. The health spokesman said that if data from the 2016 census were used, South Australia would allocate less money.
