$26.4 million was spent on NSPs around Australia in the financial year 2007/8, with $17.8m spent on support for the NSP sector including $15.9m on primary sites, $1.2m on secondary sites and $440,000 on vending machines. $8.6m was spent on the provision of consumables including $6.9 m on sterile injecting equipment, $1.5m on disposal and $290,000 on safe sex packs. See Table 4 for a summary of the spending on NSPs from 2000/1 to 2007/8. Results for individual jurisdictions are reported in the relevant sections.
In 2008 dollar terms, expenditure on NSPs has increased by $7m from 2000/1 to 2007/8 with near-doubling of funding for primary sites and a four-fold increase in support for secondary sites. Spending on sterile injection equipment has been stable in 2008 dollar terms, although numbers of units of equipment provided have increased by 15% (see Table 5 and Figure 1); rises have been greatest in Victoria and Queensland (Figure 21).
The per-capita rate of needle and syringe distribution in each state and territory among the entire population and the estimated size of the IDU population are shown in Table 6. It was estimated that the average IDU receives between 160 and 290 syringes every year.
Funds spent on disposal have increased by 28%. Vending machines have been introduced into more jurisdictions since 2005. Safe sex packs have increased nationally from $15,000 in 2000/1 to $293,000 in 2007/8.
The number of NSPs has increased since 2000 (see Table 7). There has been a steady increase in the total number of all types of outlets.
Table 4: Expenditures made by financial year in 2008 Australian dollars (unadjusted financial expenditures and adjusted for consumer price index)
| 2000/1 | 2001/2 | 2002/3 | 2003/4 | 2004/5 | 2005/6 | 2006/7 | 2007/8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumables - sterile injecting equipment ($'000) | 5,658 | 5,140 | 5,633 | 6,677 | 6,928 | 6,571 | 7,404 | 6,857 |
| Consumables - disposal equipment ($'000) | 911 | 884 | 952 | 941 | 1,184 | 1,122 | 1,274 | 1,474 |
| Consumables - safe sex packs ($'000) | 15 | 52 | 70 | 69 | 246 | 245 | 289 | 293 |
| Consumables sub-total ($'000) | 6,583 | 6,076 | 6,655 | 7,686 | 8,358 | 7,938 | 8,968 | 8,624 |
| NSP support - primary NSP operations ($'000) | 8,851 | 10,510 | 10,417 | 11,261 | 12,505 | 12,274 | 14,450 | 15,929 |
| NSP support - support for secondary NSPs ($'000) | 380 | 653 | 745 | 788 | 951 | 1,264 | 963 | 1,222 |
| NSP support - transport ($'000) | 89 | 82 | 92 | 105 | 117 | 184 | 198 | 192 |
| NSP support - vending machines ($'000) | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 246 | 441 |
| NSP support sub-total ($'000) | 9,331 | 11,245 | 11,254 | 12,154 | 13,573 | 13,742 | 15,856 | 17,783 |
| Total (unadjusted for CPI) ($'000) | 15,914 | 17,321 | 17,909 | 19,841 | 21,931 | 21,680 | 24,824 | 2,607 |
| Total (adjusted for CPI) ($'000) | 20,119 | 21,236 | 21,312 | 23,064 | 24,850 | 23,897 | 26,500 | 27,380 |
| Total client costs ($'000) | 7,608 | 7,296 | 6,548 | 6,769 | 6,825 | 6,230 | 6,176 | 6,160 |
Table 5: Number of needles/syringes distributed in Australia during financial years (1999/2000-2007/8)
| 1999/2000 | 2000/1 | 2001/2 | 2002/3 | 2003/4 | 2004/5 | 2005/6 | 2006/7 | 2007/8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACT (’000) | 502 | 664 | 424 | 468 | 504 | 484 | 457 | 467 | 517 |
| NSW (’000) | 11,517 | 12,434 | 10,343 | 9,116 | 9,001 | 8,916 | 8,813 | 8,558 | 8,290 |
| NT (’000) | 460 | 397 | 396 | 398 | 399 | 388 | 407 | 407 | 379 |
| QLD (’000) | 5,820 | 5,554 | 5,239 | 5,887 | 6,368 | 6,216 | 6,739 | 7,231 | 7,069 |
| SA (’000) | 2,821 | 3,018 | 2,999 | 3,443 | 3,611 | 3,676 | 3,566 | 2,915 | 2,763 |
| TAS (’000) | 756 | 756 | 756 | 756 | 1,031 | 1,326 | 777 | 823 | 692 |
| VIC (’000) | 7,972 | 7,829 | 7,100 | 7,379 | 8,165 | 8,593 | 8,241 | 8,464 | 9,350 |
| WA (’000) | 3,040 | 3,184 | 3,601 | 3,563 | 3,496 | 3,788 | 4,196 | 4,273 | 4,039 |
| National (’000) | 32,888 | 33,836 | 30,858 | 31,010 | 32,575 | 33,387 | 33,196 | 33,138 | 33,099 |
Figure 21: Number of needles/syringes distributed in each Australian jurisdiction during calendar years (1999-2008)
Text version of Figure 21
Top of pageFigures in this description are approximate as they have been read from the graph.| ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 500,000 | 11,000,000 | 370,000 | 6,500,000 | 2,900,000 | 0 | 7,500,000 | 3,000,000 |
| 2000 | 600,000 | 12,500,000 | 430,000 | 5,500,000 | 2,900,000 | 0 | 8,250,000 | 3,200,000 |
| 2001 | 540,000 | 11,500,000 | 445,000 | 5,500,000 | 2,900,000 | 275,000 | 7,250,000 | 3,500,000 |
| 2002 | 460,000 | 9,500,000 | 445,000 | 5,750,000 | 3,350,000 | 900,000 | 7,000,000 | 3,400,000 |
| 2003 | 480,000 | 9,000,000 | 450,000 | 6,250,000 | 3,200,000 | 700,000 | 7,900,000 | 3,600,000 |
| 2004 | 490,000 | 9,000,000 | 390,000 | 6,250,000 | 3,800,000 | 1,350,000 | 8,250,000 | 3,700,000 |
| 2005 | 470,000 | 8,750,000 | 410,000 | 6,750,000 | 3,700,000 | 1,00,000 | 8,500,000 | 4,000,000 |
| 2006 | 460,000 | 8,500,000 | 410,000 | 6,700,000 | 3,100,000 | 775,000 | 7,750,000 | 4,300,000 |
| 2007 | 500,000 | 8,250,000 | 380,000 | 7,250,000 | 3,000,000 | 800,000 | 9,250,000 | 4,200,000 |
| 2008 | 500,000 | 8,000,000 | 380,000 | 6,900,000 | 2,600,000 | 575,000 | 9,750,000 | 3,800,000 |
Table 6: Per-capita rate of needle/syringe distributions in 2007/8 in each jurisdiction
| Population in jurisdiction (Dec 2008, ABS53) | Per-capita rate of needle and syringe distribution (over whole population) | Per-capita rate of needle and syringe distribution among estimated IDU population | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACT | 347,800 | 1.5 | 219.1 |
| NSW | 7,041,400 | 1.2 | 157.6 |
| NT | 221,700 | 1.7 | 211.1 |
| QLD | 4,349,500 | 1.6 | 179.8 |
| SA | 1,612,000 | 1.7 | 187.6 |
| TAS | 500,300 | 1.4 | 186.4 |
| VIC | 5,364,800 | 1.7 | 236.0 |
| WA | 2,204,000 | 1.8 | 204.3 |
| National | 21,641,500 | 1.6 | 202.9 |
Table 7: Number of national NSP outlets
(NB: the number of sites in NSW prior to 2006/7 was taken as the number in 2002 since data were not provided)| Primary | Secondary | Enhanced secondary | Vending machine sites | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007/8 | 85 | 732 | 22 | 118 |
| 2006/7 | 86 | 710 | 20 | 114 |
| 2005/6 | 83 | 714 | 17 | 64 |
| 2004/5 | 82 | 706 | 17 | 64 |
| 2003/4 | 77 | 697 | 17 | 57 |
| 2002/3 | 76 | 667 | 16 | 57 |
| 2001/2 | 75 | 654 | 16 | 57 |
| 2000/1 | 71 | 624 | 16 | 56 |