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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3938 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I will not go on at length about drugs, except to say that I have joined the Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform. I believe that it is a very valuable opportunity to stand up for a progressive response to the issue of drugs in our community. This morning, in this place, we had a debate about increased crime in the ACT. The response is that we need to be sentencing people for longer, maybe bringing in prevalence and whatever. This is a very unsophisticated approach to the issue. The crime increase in the ACT and, indeed, around Australia is often related to the drug trade. If we are going to put young people in gaol, we can pay for their accommodation in that gaol; we can pay for their brutalisation in that gaol; and they will come back to our community after that experience and once again cause great problems for themselves and for the community generally. We really do have to look at how we can address the issue of drugs in our community. If we did that, we probably would not be having the debate we had this morning and people would not be wanting heavier sentencing and incarcerating people at a greater rate and for longer periods of time.

On the treaties, I want to make just one comment, particularly about the desertification convention. That has been going on for many years. I would love to hear from Mrs Carnell what the discussion was. It should have been in place a long time ago. I know that countries in Africa in particular and other countries have been trying to work with developed countries. Australia should have been taking a real lead in that. I would love to understand better what the problem is. I do not know whether it is that Queensland still loves clearing forests or what it is; but, obviously, there is something that is stopping this essential convention.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (4.20): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to make a brief contribution to the debate. I heard the Chief Minister's comments about the domestic violence package after she attended the meeting last week. I also heard, with some surprise - perhaps not really with much surprise, to be frank - the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition about the Chief Minister's response to the issues. I note that Mr Berry takes the view that Mrs Carnell did not fight hard enough against the Prime Minister's package.

I have to make one small reflection, though, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. Those, such as you, who have been around for a fairly long period of time can cast their minds back to the period when there was both a Labor Chief Minister and a Labor Prime Minister in this town. Think of all the occasions when the Labor Chief Minister, or anybody in the Labor team, for that matter, criticised the Federal Labor Government or the Federal Labor Prime Minister. On occasions when they were ripping services out of the ACT, on occasions when they were closing schools, on occasions when they were privatising the Commonwealth Bank, on occasions when they were selling off Qantas, on occasions when they moved public servants out of the ACT and reduced government departments - when they did all those things that the members of the Labor Party, at least in this place, so hate - where was the Labor Party locally when it came to criticising their Federal counterparts? Of course, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the record will show that in those matters they were silent - stony, totally, poker-faced silent.

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