Page 3490 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 October 2022
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Families and Community Services and Minister for Health) (5.42): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 3500].
I really want to thank everyone who has participated in this debate today and thank, again, all of those people who have shared their lived experience with me, with my office, with the Legislative Assembly through the inquiry process, and, individually, I am sure, with many members in this place—those in the sector who support people who use alcohol and other drugs, but particularly in this case, those who are most marginalised in our community as illicit drug users.
I particularly want to thank Mr Pettersson—he has already spoken in closing on the in-principle stage—for all of the work that he had done in this space. It has been an incredible amount of work, and an incredible amount of engagement with those with that lived experience, with the sector, and with colleagues. So, I really acknowledge the work that Mr Pettersson did to bring this matter to the Assembly and to have the conversation with the community.
I want to thank Mr Davis and his office for their collaborative engagement through this process of the amendments. And I also want to thank Mr Hanson. While we do not agree, I think this has been a robust debate. People have had the opportunity to put their views on the table, and I thank Mr Hanson for his engagement in this process and his advocacy for what he believes is right, even if I do not agree with him. I commend the bill, as amended, to the Assembly.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (5.44): At the end of the day, we do not support this. I have articulated that. Let me summarise. This will lead to more meth and heroin and other drugs being available in our community, and availability is the mother of usage. It will lead to more people being addicted to these insidious drugs.
The consequence in our community cannot be understated. A level of crime will come out of this, not just from people affected by meth, but from organised crime, as has been said by the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, who those opposite refuse to quote. They talk about a balanced debate, but they will not mention the fact that he said that this is going to make it a more dangerous environment for his officers and a more dangerous society.
The Australian Federal Police Association has made similar comments about what it called “rolling out the red carpet for organised crime”. We share those concerns. We also share the concerns about what this means for dangerous driving. I know that there is an inquiry into that at the moment, and some of those submissions go to the issue of drugged driving. If you have more people affected by drugs and more people seeing that there is a permission structure around that, it will lead to more people doing meth and other drugs driving on our roads, and we will see more carnage on our roads. Again, that is not the opinion of just the Canberra Liberals; that is the opinion put forward by those people who have to clean up the mess, the carnage, on our roads.
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