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Milestone man
EURO FINAL PASSION IN THE VALLEY
Steve ‘Budgie’ Buhagiar will umpire his 1000th game of football on Saturday. He reflects on the 37-year journey to the magnificent milestone in today’s Valley Sport.
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FULL STORY - PAGE 31
CALL FOR COURT MEMBER for Morwell Russell Northe has been campaigning for the state government to establish a specialised drug court in Morwell to rehabilitate and treat offenders with a drug dependency. Mr Northe first raised the issue in Parliament last year, but is renewing his push in light of the success of a drug court in Dandenong, with others being established in Shepparton and Ballarat.
The state government is also setting up a pilot at the County Court in Melbourne. Mr Northe said there was a “critical need” for the Latrobe Valley to be included in any program expansion, citing the region’s high drug-related crime rates which had tripled in the past decade. “You can’t arrest your way out of this situation, drug and alcohol addiction is a recognised health issue,” he said.
“There are a lot of addicted people who don’t want to be and if a drug court helps people find a pathway to be healthy, then this should be supported.” The drug court supervises low-level offenders caught in the cycle of drug and alcohol dependency and substancerelated offending, addressing the underlying factors that contribute to offending. Participants must comply with orders to undertake alcohol and drug
counselling, drug testing, and must regularly attend reviews, case management and clinical advisor appointments. According to state government figures, Dandenong drug court results showed that re-offending in the first year after completing the program dropped by a third. Continued on page 3
OPAL AUSTRALIA PAPER’S $3 MILLION BOOST - PAGE 5
Darren Chester Member for Gippsland
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POLICEMAN REFLECTS ON FINE CAREER