Page 2073 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR CONNOLLY: There he is again, saying, "Give the kids drugs; it is fun", or "it is funny". This is exactly the pathetic nature of pseudo opposition that we have seen here, whipping up hysteria, whipping up misinformation. You know, Mr Kaine, that we are not talking about giving the kids drugs. Your deputy leader last year was proposing these sorts of things. In order to get a couple of headlines this Liberal Party has thrown out the rational debate that it was proposing 18 months ago and gone for cheap, grubby and misleading statements like you just made. It does not sit well on the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Kaine: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. I have made no misleading statements, either in this house or elsewhere. I would like that withdrawn. "Misleading" has been defined as being unacceptable.
MR CONNOLLY: I will withdraw "misleading" and say "incorrect statements like that", because the statement that we want to give kids drugs is clearly incorrect.
Mr Kaine: I did not like "grubby" too much, either; but I will let you get away with that.
Mr Berry: You can wear that. It sits well with you.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Connolly, please proceed.
Mr Kaine: It is about equivalent to "shonky" and "sleazy".
MR CONNOLLY: Utterances opposite, I will ignore. What the Government is proposing to do, taking Mr Moore's Bill as stimulating debate on this issue, is to proceed with the concept of on-the-spot fines for the small personal use offences which currently have very low fines.
The ACT has fine regimes for cannabis which do differ from the regimes in many other States. The ACT has recognised for many years, since 1978 under a conservative Federal government, that personal use of quantities of marijuana under 25 grams or the growing for personal consumption of up to five plants ought be treated substantially differently from other drug related offences. As I say, since 1978, when the Poisons and Narcotic Drugs Ordinance was passed under the signature of the then Minister of State for Health, Mr Hunt, in a Liberal government, the - - -
Mr Moore: That is with a small "l".
MR CONNOLLY: Yes. The Liberal Party has moved a fair way since then, as we see constantly. Madam Speaker, the law in the ACT since 1978 has had a range of penalties for cannabis offences ranging from life imprisonment, which is the maximum penalty known to the law in Australia, to a $100 fine.
This hysteria that those opposite seek to generate misses the point that since 1978 the law in this Territory has distinguished between cannabis offences involving trafficking of commercial quantities of cannabis, being 100 kilograms of cannabis, which of course is a large quantity, and much smaller quantities of cannabis derivatives. Only two kilos of cannabis oil or 50 kilos of cannabis resin give rise to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment in this Territory. That should remain, and will remain, Madam Speaker. Since 1978, under a Liberal government, the possession for personal use of 25 grams of cannabis has carried a $100 fine, and the cultivation of up to five plants for personal use has carried a $100 fine.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .