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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3604 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Fine; an absolutely fine statement. Mr Howard, in his statement, says exactly the same thing. Under "education", on page 4 of his statement, he says this:

While these supply reduction measures -

he had spoken about them earlier -

will undoubtedly make inroads in reducing the availability of illicit drugs, the Government understands that no country in the world has been able to completely stop the flow of illicit drugs.

Okay. I agree with that. He then goes on to speak about the need for school education, community information and support, and says that we should be looking at eliminating drugs for the next generation - all of these sorts of things that Mr Berry talks about. Then, on page 5, he goes on to treatment programs - exactly what Mr Berry talks about. Mr Howard says we should be aiming more at treatment programs, new community treatment facilities, a particular emphasis on filling geographic and target group gaps in coverage, and so on. He goes on in the paper to refer to research.

There are a number of comments in this paper from the Prime Minister that I do not agree with. I do not believe, as the Prime Minister does, that this issue is about moral leadership. I believe it is about compassion. I do not believe that this is simply an easy issue. Mr Berry has tried to make political capital out of an issue on which nobody should do that. I think the Prime Minister has attempted to do that too. But for Mr Berry to bring forward a motion like this, to have a go at the Prime Minister for bringing forward a policy that looks at increasing the amount of money for the AFP and Customs, spending more money on education and treatment facilities, when Mr Berry said exactly the same thing over the last month both in the Assembly and out there in the community, has to be the height of hypocrisy. It simply has to be, Mr Speaker.

I believe that this Assembly has done very well in the past in trying to have sensible rational debates on the very large problem of drug abuse. Unfortunately, over the last month or so, Mr Berry has decided to play politics on an issue on which, I have to say, he should not play politics. I do not think there is any way that the motion as it stands should be supported in the Assembly. I have circulated some amendments which suggest that if we are going to make the comments we made about John Howard we should also add the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Berry. Mr Berry, in his motion, makes a comment about Federal Government cuts to the AFP and Customs in law enforcement areas. Those cuts, as you would have heard from the AFPA, have been going on for the last 15 years. If you are going to have a go at this Federal Government, you certainly have to add previous Federal governments because it is not a new problem. At least Mr Howard has put some extra dollars back into that area. I understand that Ms Tucker has an amendment as well which I think is very appropriate.

MR SPEAKER: Would you like to formally move your amendments? You will need leave because you have two.

Leave granted.

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