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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4224 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

I think it is rather sad that there is the possibility of persons under 18 attending the facility. My understanding of similar facilities overseas is that they deal with only adults.

Ms Tucker: Children can use the toilets, Bill. It is a good idea.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.47): I will not be so crass as to suggest which names we will hang on the public toilets around Canberra to designate whose shooting galleries they are after this particular drug injecting place is established. I wish to address the amendment very briefly, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: You might have addressed the chair.

MR STANHOPE: Through you, Mr Speaker, I was - - -

MR SPEAKER: At the moment you are addressing the back of the Assembly. Just turn around a little bit, thank you.

MR STANHOPE: I am comfortable this way, Mr Speaker, thank you.

MR SPEAKER: Well, I am not.

MR STANHOPE: These new Parts create an advisory committee. This is a very important and significant part of the suite of amendments I have proposed. It is a very important committee. As has just been indicated by Mr Moore and Mr Stefaniak, it is broad ranging. There might even be concern that perhaps it is too big, but I believe it is important that the community have some ownership of this proposal. This is a way of ensuring a significant community connection with the proposal.

It is a broad range of organisations, including the Australian Federal Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Legal Aid Office, the Ambulance Service, the Institute of Criminology, the Australian Medical Association and the Canberra City Heart Business Association. I am pleased that a significant representative of the last organisation, Emmanuel Notaras, has been a firm supporter of this proposal. I acknowledge the point that Mr Stefaniak made in relation to Mr Gower, who I know is also particularly interested in all drug issues. A number of other organisations are also included.

The function of the advisory committee is to advise the Minister on almost everything to do with the drug injecting place. The legislation requires that if the Minister does not accept a recommendation of this broad-ranging committee the Minister must give reasons. That is an important protection. The reasons must be tabled in this place within a very short period. In that context the Assembly will know precisely what is going on. The broadly based community committee will have a real opportunity of having some influence on the operation of the facility.

There is a requirement in proposed section 9L that the Minister must consult with the advisory committee on a range of things, including the place to be declared the facility. The Minister cannot declare a place to be a drug injecting place until he has consulted

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