Page 617 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
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MR SPEAKER: Do not do it from your chair. If you want to speak to the point of order then rise and speak.
Mr Seselja: On the point of order—
MR SPEAKER: Did you hear me?
Mr Seselja: Am I able to speak to the point of order, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, but if you want to comment on it, seek the call. Do not backchat from your seat.
Mr Seselja: I am doing that.
MR SPEAKER: Okay.
Mr Seselja: Mr Speaker, I put this to you: if Mr Hanson is not able to question what another member in this place is saying then what is the purpose of debates? If Mr Hanson believes something to be untrue and he is going to set out why he believes it to be untrue, how can that possibly be unparliamentary? And if it is, many debates in this place will be stifled.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson?
MR HANSON: Yes. I am just getting a copy of the legislation so that I can show you—
MR SPEAKER: That is fine. Mr Hanson, I have sought some clarification. I think that you are free to proceed.
MR HANSON: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The point of the matter is that my legislation does talk about prescribed limits. That is true. I agree, actually, with what Mr Stanhope is saying, that to try to say, for illicit drugs—and you have been at the briefing that I have given, Mr Speaker, as have other members—that this amount of marijuana is okay and that amount of marijuana is not, that one joint is fine and two joints are not, or the same for methamphetamines, would be patently ridiculous. They are the two drugs that are prescribed in the legislation. We do not attempt to do that in the legislation.
What the legislation says, and I can quote, with regard to illicit drugs, is that any concentration of the drug present in the blood would be an offence. That is the point. So when Mr Stanhope stands here in this Assembly and says in the media today that the Canberra Liberals’ legislation would require a prescribed level that would be determined then that is patently false.
In this legislation, what I have prescribed are two drugs. One is cannabis; one is methamphetamines.
Mr Stanhope: Only two. What about the other drugs?
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