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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3607 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, it is interesting that Mr Berry has made the same accusation about me and Mrs Carnell, saying that we also have a very narrow focus on drug policy because we have focused only on a heroin trial. That is absolute nonsense, Mr Berry, and you know it. There was an appropriate time to focus on that issue primarily in order to get it through the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy. That is what I did and I am very proud of that. I am very proud that I followed that approach at that time. But at no stage have I ever forgotten the issue of rehabilitation and treatment, particularly treatment. Treatment includes much more than rehabilitation and is based on the very principles outlined in this generally very good motion about harm minimisation.

The language used by John Howard is the exact language of the prohibitionists. It is nothing else. He even goes to the extreme of using the American language of "zero tolerance", "just say no" and "a war on drugs". John Howard has picked those expressions up, and no wonder. He got his axeman, Max Moore-Wilton, to do a study. Max Moore-Wilton spent four weeks studying the matter and came back with the statement that John Howard made. The study that Max Moore-Wilton did is still secret. The Prime Minister is going to keep it secret. Why is he going to keep it secret? That is an excellent question. I will tell you why he is going to keep it secret. It will not stand up.

I have already circulated to members a copy of a publication called "Drug Law". Twenty-six royal commissions and inquiries since Marriott first reported to the Senate in 1971 have overwhelmingly said that the approach John Howard has taken is the wrong way to go. John Howard has a secret document that says, "Follow the way of the Americans". He will not make it public, because we know that it will not stand up to scrutiny. The reports of all those other 26 inquiries are public documents. I have read them all. There is one small section in the report of the Williams royal commission that has not been made public, but the other reports have been. They all took a broad approach to dealing with the problem of drugs. Mr Berry is right in this. I think this is where we are all agreed. There must be a smorgasbord of approaches. While there is a broad range of approaches, some of the approaches will suit some people and some will suit others.

Of recent times we have heard people and the media talk a great deal about ultrarapid detoxification and the use of naltrexone through an anaesthetic process. In that process we see a very strong focus on one small method which I hope will be adopted here and which I hope will be helpful for 10 per cent of the people, or something along those lines. It might even go to 15 per cent, in which case it will be great. But it is only part of a broad armoury. (Extension of time granted)

What we have here is a very important motion, and the general nature of this motion must be seen on its face value as adding to the approach that we take to this Assembly and to the way we deal with illicit drugs. Apart from the Max Moore-Wilton report, a recent report commissioned by the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy assessed the Australian drug strategy method. It was done by a Canadian and an Australian professor.

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