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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1368 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

It will not be easy, and it will not be short term. To fully remove or just minimise the effect on some individuals may take 20, 30 or 40 years. But we can make a start and do it together. The tent the Minister for Health sets up will have to be big and, as far as those invited to sit inside it go, very interesting. Those invited will have to show the dedication and maturity that members of the poverty task group showed, and whoever Bishop Power chooses to lead that group will have to show great stamina and leadership to bring all of us together.

It is only with a broad range of programs that we will be able to address the scourge of drugs. It does not matter where you sit on the spectrum: if you are for total abstinence, you have a role to play; and if you believe in harm minimisation or a form of legalisation-perhaps through a safe injecting place or, at the far end of the spectrum, a heroin trial-you have a role to play as well. It is only with a broad range of programs, stretching from enforcement to education and from rehabilitation to detoxification, that we will be able to come up with solutions to these problems, which have vexed many countries around the world.

Perhaps we are setting the bar too high, but I do not believe that is the case. One of the things that underlie a city like Canberra is the respect citizens normally show for one another. If we can engender that respect in the people who will form the task force, then our city will have the opportunity to again show that we are clever, caring and able to work together respecting each other's views in making sure that this happens.

We will be looking at prevention, minimisation, the reduction of blood-borne diseases, the enforcement of policing, detox, rehabilitation and how to deal with those suffering from dual diagnosis. Is new legislation what we need? We need more drug education, and we need cooperation. Some of the answers to this will be in planning, some in housing and some in the education of our young. Some of the answers lie in helping those in rehabilitation gain the life skills that will enable them to break the cycle, get back into society and participate in it at whatever level they choose. Of course, some of the answers lie in education and making sure the young are alert to what it is we do.

It is important that we look across the board, and what I heard from Ms Tucker and Ms Dundas was that everybody seems to think that we need to take a broad approach. It cannot be confined to the illicit drug argument. We must also look at the legal drugs-the alcohol, tobacco and other substances whose revenue governments are addicted to and about which governments have the opportunity to make decisions. How will they fund their budgets? What about the impact that would have on the health dollars we have to spend? The opportunity is ultimately there to make some brave decisions or meet the challenges that a task force might present to us.

But it has got to be holistic, and it has got to be across the board. All of the portfolios have a part to play in this. I remember with great pleasure a question we were asked when we were in government on needle stick injuries. The Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, thought the question was to her; I thought, as urban services minister, it was for me;

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