Page 3296 - Week 11 - Thursday, 12 September 1991
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MR DUBY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think the point has been made that this is something that affects all aspects of society and is something which I would anticipate would have the full support of all members of this Assembly. I frankly doubt, as I said, whether the time available for the inquiry and report is sufficient; but at least it might well scratch the surface. It might just show the tip of the iceberg that does exist in this society and might also demonstrate the level of concern that the citizens of the Territory have on this matter. Mr Speaker, I endorse entirely Mr Collaery's motion and I look forward to unanimous support for it from the Assembly.
MR MOORE (4.57): When I was approached earlier today on this motion, I understood that it was going to be a motion to send this inquiry to a committee of this Assembly, and the only question for me was how much time a committee of this first Assembly would have, to deal with this issue properly. I believe, in fact, that it is a long-term issue and not a short-term inquiry. One of the problems with the motion is the notion of an inquiry of this nature reporting by 30 November. In dealing with any drugs there is a huge scope for a range of human behaviours. What appears to be the simple solution, just lifting the penalties and stopping people from doing it, simply does not work. To have another report along those lines would be an absolute disaster.
I believe that the intention of the Residents Rally in raising this issue is not to just politically grandstand at all but to express a serious concern about dealing with these issues. However, the appropriate way for this Assembly to deal with these complicated issues, I believe, is to allow one of its own committees to look at it or to establish a new select committee to look at it. Whatever happens, considering the time we are at with reference to the next election, I believe that any such committee should carry with it a recommendation for the inquiry to carry over into the next Assembly, the next Assembly having the prerogative, naturally, either to take it on or to let it go.
Whenever we are dealing with drugs, in particular, alcohol, which I think is the drug which causes most problems in Australia, we should take the approach that has been adopted by the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy and the national campaign against drug abuse, and that is to minimise the harm associated with the drugs. That applies to whatever drugs. We have been quite successful in the ACT in beginning to tackle the killer drug tobacco. A great deal of credit for that goes to Mr Humphries for the action he took and the Bills that he brought to this house when he was Minister. We also have made some attack on alcohol through the efforts of Mr Collaery. I believe that quite appropriate and quite effective measures already have been put under way. What we need to do is to assess what the next step is in dealing with these particular problems.
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