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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3935 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

There are also issues here about environment protection and heritage. The Chief Minister's statement talked, amongst other things, about rationalising the approach to heritage. I think that is very important. Page 5 of your statement refers to the "existing Commonwealth-State arrangement for the protection of places of heritage significance through the development of a cooperative national heritage places strategy". I think that is a very positive statement. Often heritage goes across States, of course, and I think this is also an issue that it is appropriate to deal with.

On illicit drugs, it is quite clear that we all disagree with John Howard. I just take time to say that Mr Berry implies that in some way there was only a single focus on drugs in the ACT over the last few years.

Mr Berry: There was.

MR MOORE: And he indicates that now with an interjection, "There was". What absolute nonsense! His own practice is that, if he keeps saying the same things over and over again, then he actually believes them and hopes that other people will believe them; and I suppose some do. It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that you have only to look at the ACT's drug strategy to realise the breadth of effort that goes into it and the fact that it is also under review at the moment.

Personally, I have spoken at a whole range of forums about a huge range of strategies. Indeed, I have invited Mr Berry to sign the Charter for Drug Law Reform, which goes well beyond a single strategy and is something that I have dealt with very widely over the last three or four years. This just shows that once again Wayne Berry is wrong. He is wrong so regularly that it is very difficult to deal with.

Mr Berry: He is spot on.

MR MOORE: Look at the Charter for Drug Law Reform, Wayne; it has a very broad-ranging way of dealing with things. Remember the charter that you have refused to sign.

Mr Berry: One political party at a time, Michael; I can be in only one.

MR MOORE: I hear an interjection, "One political party at a time". Of course, as you would be aware, Mr Berry, there would be at least 80 Labor MPs from around Australia who have signed that Charter for Drug Law Reform and do not have any difficulty with it. What we sought to do is the very opposite of what you have tried to do. Instead of undermining other people's approach, we tried to get a coordinated approach to what was the best for people in Australia. (Extension of time granted)

I now move to the Treaties Council. I guess one of the disappointments for me was that, had we been working to get the Administration (Interstate Agreements) Bill through the Assembly to become an Act, then I would have been putting pressure on our Chief Minister to see what she could do about the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to ensure that it became more than a declaration.

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