Page 4262 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019

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the reality is that the way they have done it is going to cause significant problems. It is a bad piece of law. This bill should not have been passed; this act should not commence.

What should happen if this coalition government of the Labor Party and the Greens wishes to legalise cannabis is that they should go back to the drawing board and form legislation that will not cause the problem of somebody being convicted under commonwealth law. In essence, they need to provide a positive defence, without my telling them how to do it. But it has been pretty clear from the advice of both the commonwealth DPP and now the commonwealth Attorney-General that, without positive defence, there is a great risk of an individual being prosecuted.

I understand that in part that was advice that was provided as part of a committee recommendation that the government and Mr Pettersson chose to ignore. I am very disappointed by the response from those opposite today. If we do see an individual member of our community being prosecuted and found guilty of a criminal offence in the ACT as a result of your telling them that it is legal to smoke cannabis when it is not, it will be on your heads.

Question put:

That the motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question resolved in the negative.

Schools—violence

MS LEE (Kurrajong) (5.14): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the concerns of parents, teachers and the community about reported incidences of violence in ACT schools;

(b) that, on 20 February 2019, Labor and the Greens voted against the Canberra Liberals’ motion calling on this Assembly to establish an independent inquiry into violence in ACT schools;

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