The future of an Aboriginal drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre south of Canberra is in doubt after it was revealed the zoning of the land does not allow for some clinical services.
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The $12 million Ngunnawal bush healing farm in the Tidbinbilla Valley was completed in November last year, but since then Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service chief executive Julie Tongs said it has been "sitting empty" after confusion over what the land could be used for.
Ms Tongs said despite the ACT government asking Winnunga to submit a tender to provide drug and alcohol services on the site last year, she was told in February no clinical services could be run from there.
A briefing this week confirmed her fears the site would be little more than "a campsite", Ms Tongs said.
"If that's not going to be a rehab then they have to find us one and they have to find it fast or they have to find the funding in this budget," Ms Tongs said.
Local Indigenous community leaders have long pushed for a place of healing to aid in the rehabilitation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT.
Planning for the drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic near Tharwa began about a decade ago.
Planning minister Mick Gentleman sidestepped community objection to the facility by pushing the proposal through with his call-in powers and construction began on the eight-bed bush retreat in 2014.
In question time on Tuesday, Canberra Liberals leader Alistair Coe said Ms Tong's rebuke was a "damning indictment" of the government's management of Indigenous affairs.
The Canberra Liberals' Indigenous affairs spokesman James Milligan described it as a "major stuff up".
"The Chief Minister cannot try to shift blame to the Indigenous community claiming that it doesn't understand what the Farm is for, when as far back 2004, there was a commitment that the Healing Farm would be a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre," Mr Milligan said.
But Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the characterisation was unfair and the government was working to address Ms Tong's concerns.
"ACT Health acknowledges there's been some confusion in the community about the role and purpose of the farm and its zoning," Mr Barr said.
"There are some differences within the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community about the services that should be delivered at the bush healing farm.
"Some stakeholders want a medical model of rehabilitation delivered on the site but the government is committed to delivering the vision of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council to deliver a healing service that works to rebuild a fractured community where recurring alcohol and drug addictions are a barrier to a better life."
But Ms Tongs refuted Mr Barr's claims that the site was not intended as a clinical facility.
"It was. We've got the deed of contract," Ms Tongs said.
"It's not about what the elder's council wanted, it's about what's best for our community. The fellows sitting in prison, that we can't get into rehab, what hope have they got now? They've ripped the rug out from underneath them and that's not fair."
On Wednesday, health minister Meegan Fitzharris reaffirmed her commitment to opening the healing farm as soon as possible and confirmed it would provide rehabilitation services.
"We need to have that service there, there has been some confusion which I regret and which I am seeking to now understand about the type of care and type of services that will be provided there," she said.
"It will be able to be used as a rehabilitation centre, what it will not be able to be used for is a detoxification centre."
Members of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council have been approached for comment.
