Page 2054 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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DRUGS OF DEPENDENCE (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
DRUGS OF DEPENDENCE (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 3) 1992
Referral to Committee
MR MOORE (8.55): I move:
That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent the moving of a motion referring the Drugs of Dependence (Amendment) Bill 1992 and the Drugs of Dependence (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 1992 to the Select Committee on Drugs.
The two Bills I refer to are the Bill that has been tabled by Mrs Carnell and the Bill that has just been tabled by Mr Berry. I think it is appropriate at this point that the committee should look at those Bills, particularly because, in the normal course of events, Mr Berry's Bill would remain on the table until the next sitting, when it would be debated. It is the intention of the Select Committee on Drugs to report on methadone at the next sitting. In fact, the date we are suggesting is 15 October, and therefore no time would be lost by this process, but it would allow appropriate scrutiny of the Bills.
Mr Berry this evening ran through his transformation, from the time when he was advocating the participation of pharmacies to the new approach he is now taking. I think it would be appropriate for us to have the opportunity to be presented with the same sort of evidence in case we should wish to go through the same transformation ourselves. Members of the select committee are very open-minded and will continue to work, as we do in all our committees, in an open-minded way and to consider all possibilities. I think, therefore, that it would be appropriate to suspend standing orders in order to allow me to put that motion.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (8.57): The Government will be opposing the suspension of standing orders because it is completely unnecessary and inappropriate. This Assembly has passed a motion which reads as follows:
That the ACT methadone program be expanded to meet the needs of all its potential clients consistent with an appropriate harm reduction approach.
The Government's Bill meets those needs. The issue Mr Moore raises has been, I am reliably informed, dealt with by the committee in public hearings. My officers briefed the committee on the Government's position on this matter. The position is entirely clear. One of the things Mr Moore has - - -
Mr Kaine: The committee had better not consider anything else, having got the view of the Government.
MR BERRY: You have two choices. You can either go the way you propose - the privatisation route - or you can go our way. It is entirely up to you.
Mr Kaine: There may just be a compromise, may there not? Ask the committee.
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