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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2767 ..

MS TUCKER (4.37): I think we have a lot of common ground in this place on the issue of drugs; so I will not get into where we might have differences, although I must say I do not agree with the line Mr Berry has taken today. I think it is very important to continue to raise the issue of the heroin trial. It is actually not just about the heroin trial; it is also about what is happening to our democracy, the power of the media and, might I suggest also, the way the major parties sometimes tend to be poll-driven rather than issue-driven, and it is not just Mr Howard who has been guilty of that. The interchangeable policies of Labor and Liberal are great evidence of that fact.

Mr Moore: I cannot imagine the Labor Party being poll-driven. Do you really mean that, Ms Tucker?

MS TUCKER: Mr Moore interjects, "Would Labor ever be poll-driven?". I think there is evidence to suggest that could have happened, and may still be happening. We have seen the power of the media and I was glad to see Stuart Littlemore highlight it last night, but we need to be outraged. We need to say we are outraged and we need to continue to do that because Mr Berry is saying that all the other approaches to drugs and reducing the harm of drugs in our society can be pursued anyway. I believe that the heroin trial is a particularly important aspect of a response to the issue of drugs in our society.

Mr Berry: I do not disagree.

MS TUCKER: Mr Berry said he does not disagree. I know you do not disagree; you have said that several times. But that is why I believe it is really important that we continue to raise the issue here, and I have no objection to it. I know you do not like Mr Moore getting the media attention and you think he is doing it just for that reason, but I do not believe that. I believe that this is an issue that we all need to pursue. It does not have to be just Mr Moore. We all agree that it is something that we want to pursue. Why not do it in this place? This is the appropriate place, and through the media, of course, to try to influence Mr John Howard on this issue and make him actually address the issue at hand instead of the politics.

I will not repeat what other members have said, except to say that what Mr Moore called the network marketing system, where people are influencing their friends to take on various types of drugs including heroin in order to provide an income for their own use of those drugs, is very healthy and very alive in the ACT. When I was about 15 or 16 my peers were trying to persuade me to try smoking a cigarette. Right now people are trying to persuade my 16-year-old daughter to use heroin. I know in this community right now at least six young people who have taken on heroin at an age less than 17.

What this brings up for me as a mother is that this is the everyday reality for us people in Canberra who have teenage children. I have seen why some young people have chosen to take heroin, and it has a lot to do with other issues in their lives; but it is absolutely terrifying because they are so vulnerable. When I was first exposed to heroin I was probably 19 or 20. These kids are 14 or 15. In the rehabilitation services that exist they are saying that quite clearly the age is going down. That is the thing that we have to be very frightened and alarmed about here, and that is what I believe the heroin trial was trying to address. It was trying to reduce the need, among other things, to encourage other people to become involved in this drug use in order to support their own habits.

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