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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2771 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Do you remember that on the back of all the cars, the Labor Party staff cars out there in the car park? "Liberals plus Independents equals chaos", with a little marijuana leaf on the thing. I will tell you what; about eight weeks later, Liberals plus Independents equalled government. That is what it equalled.

Mr Berry: And chaos.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is how far your scare campaign on drugs got. That is how far your scare campaign got then. (Extension of time granted) I thank members. We have seen this scare campaign run before and we have seen it fail. Those opposite know that these policies will come to grief. An increasingly desperate and directionalist Opposition is trying to find some way out of the morass. They know they are going nowhere. They knew they were going nowhere with Mr Whitecross, and they are still going nowhere with Mr Berry. You know that, Mr Berry; and so does Mr Wood, and so does Ms McRae, and so do all the other people sitting up there. We have seen that. We know what is going on over there. We know the turmoil that this party has gone through. We have heard today about a new direction: "We are not going to talk about drugs. We are not going to talk about euthanasia. We are going to talk about jobs". Where were you when we were talking about jobs? In fact, where were you when we were creating jobs?

Mr Berry: We were here telling you that you went up to 8.6 per cent.

MR HUMPHRIES: We were out there creating those jobs. Where were you when we were bringing down the unemployment level in this Territory, during a period when you were attacking every single employment measure we were taking? Where were you then? You were talking about other things. You were talking about anything other than jobs during that period. We know what your policies are, Mr Berry, and we know they are not going anywhere.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the link between drug reform and crime reduction is a very real one, and one I have come to appreciate very keenly in the period since I have become Attorney-General. I believe that a very significant proportion of the people who today occupy the gaols, not just in New South Wales from the ACT, but the gaols of this entire nation; would not be there but for the policies in relation to drugs which our nation has pursued. Many of the people who, for example, in this community are knocking over service stations, supermarkets, shops, pharmacies and banks are doing so to feed a habit. They are sick people. No-one can excuse them for the crimes that they commit; but, by the same token, we have to acknowledge that the crimes committed are, in part, a product of our present direction on drugs. We cannot expect people to change their behaviour - behaviour driven in many cases by a crazed and desperate need for the money to buy drugs - without looking at the policy underpinning that state of affairs. That is why we need to look at options for change - not adopt change holus-bolus; not change direction dramatically in a way which leaves people without an understanding of what is going on; not even change without proper research and debate in the community.

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