South-West Coast electorate
Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (14:50): (6304) My constituency question is for the Minister for Health. Can the minister outline when sufficient funding will be provided to establish the Lookout residential rehabilitation centre in Warrnambool? When fully operational the Lookout will provide 20 residential rehabilitation beds to support people with drug and alcohol addictions in their recovery journey. There is an urgent need for residential drug and alcohol services in South-West Coast, and I have been advocating for the government to fund this project for too many years now as the local member. The Great South Coast was singled out in Infrastructure Victoria’s 30-year infrastructure strategy, released last year, as one of the regions it recommends the government build new residential rehabilitation facilities in. The Lookout steering committee has done an amazing job, raising $650 000 for the project. Planning is approved for the site at Dennington, and the community supports the need for the centre. The only thing needed now is for the Victorian government to provide recurrent funding. I stress the importance to the minister: the funding needs to come in this May budget.