Page 3246 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 1994
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As we know, illegal plants are grown in Australia. The poppyseed plant is one. It is simply a matter of inspectors doing their job. Growing hemp is not seen as a problem throughout the entire EEC or in the USSR. Holland, to solve a major problem with pesticides, started researching hemp. You might ask, "Why would you research hemp to solve a pesticide problem?". It was because of the lack of chemical pollution in making paper from hemp. So, for some years Holland has been researching the making of paper from hemp. Overall, cannabis hemp is the strongest, most durable, longest lasting natural soft fibre on the planet. Look at this jacket.
Mr De Domenico: Does it iron out all right?
MR STEVENSON: It irons out quite well. Depending on the society or culture, hemp's leaves and flower tops were the first, second or third most important and most used medicines for two-thirds of the world's population for at least 3,000 years until the turn of the century. It has been only in recent decades that the standing of hemp has changed in the minds of people in the world. It is about time we changed it back again. Botanically, hemp is a member of the most advanced plant family on earth. It is a woody herbaceous annual that uses the sun more efficiently than virtually any other plant on the planet - - -
Mr Berry: Is that jacket illegal?
MR STEVENSON: Mr Berry asks, "Is that jacket illegal?". Let me see what I have in the pockets. No, Mr Berry, the jacket is not illegal, not even in the ACT. I have here a catalogue from a cannabis clothing company. It can supply any type of clothing you wish. We all know that hemp is grown quite successfully in the Canberra region. I am not suggesting that anybody knows that intimately, but we do know that. Such are the value and potential of the hemp plant that even if you are in a non-ideal climate - and Canberra's is not ideal - you can still get a great benefit from the product.
Hemp is by far the earth's premium renewable natural resource. It is one that has thousands of critical uses, especially in replacing the majority of uses of fossil fuels, timber and petrochemicals. The Billion Dollar Crop explored why it is that the knowledge of the uses of such a product could have become almost non-existent. Some of the petrochemical companies had a hand in that, but that is history. It is not really relevant to what happens today or to what happens in Canberra. Let us make sure that we do our job to help solve the unemployment problem in the ACT. The commercial cultivation of hemp would do many things for the economic situation in the ACT, and we could create a thriving export industry.
MR MOORE (3.52): Mr Deputy Speaker, there was recently a television program on a community in Uganda. That program described the resourcefulness of the people and the way they utilised every part of the palm tree in their daily lives. The leaves were used to weave baskets, to make pots, to make hammocks and to act as plates for food. The bark was used for medicinal purposes. The roots were pulped, made into a flour and incorporated into bread. The sap was also used for medicinal and cooking purposes. The sap, however, when left for a number of days, fermented and became a euphoric substance which was highly prized for its relaxant effects at social gatherings.
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