Page 2086 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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MRS GRASSBY: I am quite happy to withdraw it, but Mrs Carnell has said a different thing to me from what she is saying in the house. I can only repeat what Mrs Carnell has said to me outside, and that is what I am saying. What she said in the house is different from what she said to me outside.
Mrs Carnell: That is not true.
MRS GRASSBY: Come on, Kate; it is. As I said, I had my office contact the police on this matter. They would much prefer the $100 on-the-spot fine.
Mr Cornwell: Why?
MRS GRASSBY: They find that when someone goes to court and they are fined $40 it has no effect on them whatsoever. The police believe that there should be more education for young people in not using drugs; that alcohol is a far worse drug; and that much more should be done about it. Young people drinking alcohol and then driving is much more serious than finding somebody with a marijuana cigarette.
We know the harm caused by drugs. The Labor Party does not wish to make young people criminals, but we do not want to legalise drugs. Thus we are leaving the law as it is. The Liberals would rather send young people to gaol and stop them getting jobs because they have a criminal record. We know that young people, if they want to, can do much more damage to themselves by sniffing some products and growing some very dangerous mushrooms. We make young people criminals for smoking marijuana, but we do not make them criminals for sniffing petrol or paint thinners. We send them to the courts where they are fined $40 for smoking cigarettes, but we do nothing about that which is a lot more serious in many ways.
Changing this law will bring it into the twentieth century. We will not be sending young people to gaol and giving them a record to follow them all their lives; at the same time the pushers and the people who deal in great quantities of drugs will be sent to gaol. All around the world everybody knows the damage caused by drugs and most people in the world are trying to do something about educating young people not to take and use drugs. We need to be looking at that. We need to be looking at giving people a reason not to do this.
Mr Cornwell: Why don't you give them some jobs?
MRS GRASSBY: We are not discussing that Bill at the moment, I am sorry. This happens to be a Bill that Mr Moore put up and I think that you should attack Mr Moore on that, not me. It is Mr Moore's Bill. All we have is an amendment to the Bill.
Mr De Domenico: It is the tail wagging the dog again.
MRS GRASSBY: I do not know; he votes with you more times than he votes with us. I have counted them. I think the tail is wagging you.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MRS GRASSBY: Thank you, Madam Speaker, for bringing them to order. I appreciate that. It is much easier now than trying to talk over the top of the rabble.
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