Dubbo challengers slam rehab location announcement as eleventh-hour election 'stunt'

On Thursday morning, Mark Spittal WNSWLHD Chief Executive was joined by Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders to announce that the District reached an agreement to purchase a four-hectare site in Spears Drive, in West Dubbo.

However, Labor candidate Josh Black and Shooters candidate Kate Richardson have said the selected location was "inappropriate" and questioned the timing of the announcement.

"The proposal announced today by Dugald is contrary to community consultation, will not achieve the clinical and therapeutic outcomes needed, and will not maintain community support," said Mr Black.

"A central objective of the long running #dubboneedsarehab campaign was a suitable rural location. That idea has been jettisoned in order for the project to be announced in a rush, five minutes before the state election."

Mr Black said an urban setting for the rehab centre was at odds with what the community were calling for when the centre was originally announced.

"I have no doubts Dugald will claim that this location is about access to services in town and so forth, however many successful rehabs exist in rural locations where clients are kept at a distance from temptation and where the best therapeutic and cultural outcomes can be achieved," he said.

"What Dugald has announced today is a half-baked, B-grade option that needs to go back to the drawing board."

Despite supporting the centre and affirming her commitment to it should she be elected, Ms Richardson also has concerns about the decision to locate the centre in a residential area.

She says she has grandchildren living in the neighbourhood where the centre will be located and worries it might pose a safety risk for families.

"If the rehab centre is up, running and developed that will have a flow-on effect with the youth crime problem and domestic violence and everything else that goes hand-in-hand. We've got to have it, but it shouldn't be around where families live," she said.

"People in drug rehab centres might do anything to get a hit in that first little bit of their rehab, and I feel that location would put families in a bit of peril."

"More thought needed to go into the location before it was announced and they've had four years to do it."

Ms Richardson said the timing of the announcement - less than a month before voters go to the polls - was a "stunt" and said the lack of consultation about the residential location risked delaying the project even further.

"Dugald Saunders has had four years to do something about this. And now it's a last minute election announcement and the location of the rehab centre is absolutely abhorrent to the party that I represent," she said.

"If it had been done when it was supposed to be done when the funding was announced in 2021 then there would've been consultation. But now it's like 'we're running out of time and we need to say yes we're going to whack this thing up'."

"I just feel that this is going to stall it yet again and it'll be something that has stalled because the Nationals can't get it right."

It wasn't just the proposed location that had Dubbo challengers fired-up. Mr Black also slammed the announced capacity of 16 patients, a reduction on the original 20 beds that was announced.

"This speaks to how little the current government cares, that it would take an unbelievable 27 months after Dugald's big announcement to decide on a site, and then rip 20 percent of the beds from the facility," he said.

"As always, Dugald is big on announcement, but embarrassingly short on delivery."

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