Nambour Safety Issue: Drug services need to move, says Hunt
‘We are letting families down and the police are frustrated’
A mobile police beat in the CBD and relocating needle exchange and drug rehabilitation services back to the hospital were key strategies that would help improve safety in Nambour, according to Member for Nicklin Marty Hunt.
“In conjunction with (landlords) C-square we met with Queensland Health a number of times in relation to moving these services out of the square and into the hospital or other premises. These services may be important in our community but it is a conflict of land use to have people in distressed states attending family precincts where we have cinemas and cafes.
“Queensland Health disagreed. However they have been working with us on a solution to possibly move the entrance of the needle exchange to a more private location.”
Mr Hunt said he wanted to work with all parties to move more family-friendly health services into the tenancy. He said drug rehab and needle exchange services should not be “outsourced” to the CBD.
“I don’t think it is appropriate,” he said. “Queensland Health suggest that people seeking help shouldn’t be shunned by the community, but it’s not about that to me. It’s about putting appropriate services together. That’s what urban planning is about.
“The ongoing issues surrounding these services in the middle of Nambour have shown that it is incompatible.”
Still, Mr Hunt said there were a number of contributing factors.
“There is a bigger picture here. Over time we have seen a decline in the justice system. Courts not dealing with recidivist offenders according to community expectations and a failure to provide laws to give police the powers they need to keep the community safe. We need to bring back breach of bail as an offence and overhaul the youth justice and child safety systems.
“We are letting families down and the police are frustrated that in the end they are left to try and pick up the pieces of a failed system.”
Mr Hunt said he understood a mobile police beat would be available soon, in the form of a purpose built-van that included an office.
He said the service would be permanently available on the Sunshine Coast “as I understand it”. He hoped the initiative would involve police ‘walking a beat’ but could not say how regularly the service might patrol Nambour’s CBD.
In last fortnight’s Gazette a Sunshine Coast Police spokesperson said plans were well under way for further operations that will again target anti-social behaviour in the CBD.