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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1676 ..

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): Order! The member's time has expired.

MR MOORE: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I notice that there were no bells rung to indicate that to me; so, with your indulgence, I will finish my speech. This matter is really about compassion, and I hope that members will treat it in that way.

MS HORODNY (4.45): There are, no doubt, many medicinal benefits from the use of the plant cannabis sativa or hemp. Reports of its use for treating eye diseases, such as glaucoma, and other debilitating illnesses have been around for a while. I would like to talk briefly about broader health benefits for our environment from growing and using hemp for paper and other industrial uses. I do support the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, and I would like to see hemp used for other industrial purposes as well. It is worth noting that hemp's strength and ability to withstand salt water made it very popular in the maritime industry during the era of sail. In fact, Captain Cook's Endeavour would have used hemp for ropes, sails and the sailors' uniforms.

The now defunct Resource Assessment Commission found, in 1992, that 200,000 hectares of native forest are logged each year in Australia. This is equivalent to 400,000 football fields a year. Most of this native forest - at least 80 per cent - is woodchipped to be turned into paper. A similar situation exists around the world, where most logging of native forests and rainforest now occurs to supply the world's vast appetite for paper and paper products. This is not only an environmental but also an economic disaster because native forests of the world provide us with clean air and water and are a source of recreation and inspiration, and even new medicinal drugs. If woodchipping continues at the current rate we will certainly continue to see extinction of forest-dwelling animals around the world. I believe that hemp is the solution to this problem.

An American report by Dewey and Merril, as far back as 1916, found that to grow hemp for fibre and paper made far more ecological sense than using the same land for wood pulp. Hemp requires a quarter of the land that wood pulp requires to make paper and can be grown without the use of pesticides, as hemp seems to attract no pests. Although Australia has only trial crops of hemp in Tasmania and South Australia, other countries such as Canada, the USA, China, France and Great Britain have a commitment to industrial research in the use of hemp. Indeed, China produces hemp textiles. Hemp clothing that is available in Australia is generally imported from China, and China also produces paper from hemp. In the Ukraine, hemp is grown extensively for fibre for the carpet industry.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, Canberra could certainly lead the way in establishing a trial industrial hemp plantation for paper and other industrial uses, and for medicinal uses. This obviously would create jobs and income for the ACT, would also contribute to saving native forests, and would certainly be an excellent and highly medicinal purpose for the use of cannabis.

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