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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (22 April) . . Page.. 1207 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The idea of the forums in Melbourne was not that. It was about finding common ground. That is why I actually highlighted what they did there. It was about reducing the harm for the users and reducing the harm for the business community. So you did actually look at the whole community in a way that was much more holistic and looked for common ground. That was the whole point of the way they did it, and that is why I was not happy when there was one meeting held on the safe injecting room.

Mr Moore has now said that he will ensure that a drug policy is in place, and I commend him for that, before he brings the safe injecting room back to the Assembly. I do hope that if the community consultation process is very strongly against such a thing Mr Moore would at least acknowledge and try to address the concerns that led to that position. I do not have a problem with governments progressing policies that they have actually run on. Mr Moore has been clear on his particular position on drug law reform and I have supported that. What I am saying is that, if there has not been a really genuine and thorough attempt to work with the community, he has a lot less credibility in pushing ahead with that. He probably would not get the support of members of the Assembly either. So, it is in everybody's interests to acknowledge the importance of working with the community on these sorts of issues.

Mr Moore and I obviously do have a fundamentally different approach to involvement of the community in policy development. I know it irritates him incredibly when I keep talking about it, but I believe it is especially important in this area. No-one owns this issue. Many people from different sections of the community are hurting because of drug abuse. Many have been to funerals of young people, or have watched helplessly, or experienced themselves, the struggle with addiction. Many have watched the increase in drug dealing in our city, the increase in prostitution for drug money, young people ending up incarcerated because of their addiction, the illness many have suffered, and the violence and property crime as a result of drugs. We have seen young people incapacitated for life due to injury caused through alcohol abuse, drink-driving in particular.

Many have also seen loved ones die from smoking-related illness, or have watched loved ones with mental illness self-medicate in some way and then be caught in the dual diagnosis gap in services, and so it goes on. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community have also been struggling with particular cultural issues in this area for too long. We need to work together and to listen to each other to understand the reasons behind people's positions, and if they hold a different view not just dismiss it out of hand as ill informed or wrong.

If, as legislators, we promote a particular response to drug abuse which alarms people, then of course we must acknowledge that and work to improve understanding. As I said, the evaluation and the draft drug strategy both acknowledge that there is a lack of understanding in the community about harm minimisation. Mr Moore said the other day that Miss Curley had said something to him similar to what I am saying and he took it seriously. I wonder if I need to be 100 years old before he listens to me, or I just do not have that same credibility, obviously.

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