Page 1387 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 11 May 1994
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My understanding of the legislation in other States is that some States do differentiate between possession and supply, most notably New South Wales. My understanding is that New South Wales has already gone down the track of looking at a differentiation between the two, and I believe that the Liberal Party would not be negative to an approach that suggested that possession for personal use and for supply should have differential penalties. But to suggest that possession of a small amount should not be subject to any penalty at all, I think, flies in the face of our views on a number of other issues and, I think, this Assembly's view on a number of other issues.
If we are to send out a message that anabolic steroids are dangerous to young people, and they are, then suggesting that it is all right to have enough for your own use but not all right if you supply them to other people does send out a wrong message. I think we would all agree that the last thing we would want is to see young people who are misguided enough to use anabolic steroids end up in gaol or with criminal records or whatever. That would be inappropriate. But to say that it is all right is a quite different issue. So I too am pleased that we will adjourn this debate today to see whether we can come up with an approach that is acceptable to all members of the Assembly.
MR LAMONT (Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Housing and Community Services, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (11.04): Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister, in attending the Premiers Conference and also the Council of Australian Governments, has been at the forefront of discussion in this country about national uniformity on a range of issues. One of the issues that have been referred to sports Ministers is the question of the uniformity of drug laws in Australia, in particular as they affect sport and elite athletes. We have been able to achieve through that forum an agreement by State Ministers of varying political persuasions that we need to treat the use or abuse of anabolic steroids on a uniform basis, that the national drug testing agency should be able, right across Australia at the elite level and even below the elite level as defined, to conduct the appropriate checks and to administer appropriate national drugs laws in relation to the sporting community.
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