Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Joey Williams in my electorate is someone I have quite a deal of time for. Joey played in the National Rugby League competition with South Sydney, Penrith and Canterbury Bulldogs. He has returned to Wagga Wagga and he does a bit of motivational speaking. Last year he spoke at the Mount Austin High School presentation day. He also runs a gymnasium right next door to my electorate office in Fitzmaurice Street. Joe has also had problems with depression, which he has bravely overcome and also very courageously spoken up about in the public domain.

When he speaks I listen to him. He recently stood up at the Wagga Wagga ice forum. There were nearly 1,000 people in the Wagga Wagga High School Currie Hall that night. The meeting was chaired by my predecessor, Kay Hull AM. We had heard from a number of speakers and Joe stood and asked the meeting quite passionately, 'Why has it taken this long for us to hold such a forum here in Wagga Wagga, the largest city in inland New South Wales?'

Kay Hull, as was always her wont, addressed his question very appropriately and very eloquently and said, 'That is because the alarming trend towards ice has taken the community by surprise.' She pointed out that cannabis and alcohol are still the major causes of criminal behaviour that ends up in admissions to the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, and that anecdote was backed up by Associate Professor Dr Shane Curran, who runs the emergency department at the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. She said the major problems they have not just in Wagga Wagga and not just in regional Australia but right throughout Australia are marijuana and alcohol, but she said there was an alarming take-up rate of ice and it had dreadful repercussions, as in people addling their brains and committing crimes for no apparent reason—people from good families. I know from personal experience that people from good families often get into trouble with drugs. As the member for Paterson just pointed out, ice is a scourge in society.

As I said, there were 1,000 people at that forum in Wagga Wagga—and it takes a big community issue to get 1,000 people out on a cold winter's night in Wagga Wagga, let me tell you. On 14 May there were more than 600 people at Gundagai—and Gundagai is not nearly as big a community as Wagga Wagga. At Tumut on 14 July, just two days before the Wagga Wagga forum, it was standing room only in the venue when 500 people turned out. They are big numbers, and that is why I am so pleased to talk about this Crimes Legislation Amendment (Powers, Offences and Other Measures) Bill 2015—because I know it will help those people who are responsible for applying the law to do whatever they can within the law to wipe out or minimise this dreadful scourge that is affecting particularly regional Australia. Whilst I know that Joe Williams meant very well when he asked why it has taken this long, I know that Kay Hull was also quite truthful when she said this ice epidemic has just swept everything before it.

A recent story in The Australian was headed—unfortunately, I might say—'Ice epidemic: Narrandera, the sweet country town in the grip of crystal meth.' It brought home quite a few home truths, but I do not think that all the anecdotal evidence in that article of 11 July was entirely accurate for Narrandera—the town of trees, as the sign says on its outskirts, just 100 kilometres west of Wagga Wagga. It has the distinction, I suppose, of being on the crossroads of the Newell Highway, which is the longest highway in New South Wales, and the Sturt Highway, which is the major inland road linking Sydney to Adelaide, starting 40 kilometres east of Wagga Wagga and working all the way through to the South Australian capital. Those two highways, the Sturt and the Newell, carry a huge amount of freight across the nation. The mayor of Narrandera quite correctly told The Australian that there is a real vibrancy around the place. Councillor Clark said that unemployment is low, approvals have just been granted for a $70 million hazelnut plantation and a $60 million chicken farm and, as she pointed out, they are going to be good, solid employers for years to come. She talked proudly of the district's other main industries—a state-of-the-art engineering works, its piggery, the cotton and fruit farms, the feed lot just down the road at Yanco, which is due to expand very soon, and the timber mill.

Much of Narrandera's prosperity is due to its locality. Unfortunately, because of its unique location, being on the junction of those two highways, there are also a lot of drugs coming into town—and included in those drugs is a lot of ice. Narrandera police sergeant Brett Roden said that the drugs—ice—started to appear two or three years ago and ice has now taken hold of a disturbing proportion of the town's inhabitants. Some of the statistics that accompany that report have probably exaggerated the situation, to the point where I have co-signed a letter with Katrina Hodgkinson, the elected member for the new state seat of Cootamundra, which is going to Ken Lay, the chair of the National Ice Taskforce, to see what we can do, what communities can do, not only to address the problem but also so we do not see the picture painted that every adult, or a large proportion of them, and certainly every Indigenous adult, in communities the size of Narrandera, or in communities with a high Aboriginal population, are beset by this dreadful drug. Sure there is a problem, and I am pleased that this crimes legislation amendment bill addresses some of the issues that Narrandera has and that Wagga Wagga has, and indeed that those two other towns I mentioned, Tumut and Gundagai, and many other regional communities, also have.

I am pleased that this legislation, if passed, will introduce mandatory minimum sentences of five years imprisonment for firearm trafficking offences. That is good—that is committing to an election policy that we took to the 2013 ballot. It will enhance the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions' ability to prosecute importers of border controlled precursors and ensure that the Australian Federal Police's use of controlled operations to prevent illicit substances from reaching Australia does not unduly complicate prosecutions. That, too, is essential. It will clarify that proof of an intention to influence a particular foreign official is not required to establish the offence of foreign bribery.

The member for Paterson very well prosecuted the need to expand the definition of 'forced marriage' to include circumstances in which a victim does not freely and fully consent because he or she is incapable of understanding the nature and effect of the marriage ceremony due to age. I too, like the member for Paterson, am quite disgusted that a young girl could be married off under those sorts of dreadful circumstances at the tender age of 14. Quite frankly, 14-year-old girls should be playing with Barbie dolls and communicating with friends and going to parties and doing all the sorts of things that 14-year-old girls do. I think all too often in society these days, due to the internet and other things, that kids are forced to grow up far too young. They are exposed to far too many things at far too early an age. I am speaking as a father of three. To think that a 14-year-old girl was forced into a marriage is, as the member for Paterson quite correctly pointed out, just disgusting. Increasing penalties for forced marriage offences in the Criminal Code to make them commensurate with the most serious slavery related facilitation offences is a good thing. I am sure that members on both sides of the House would agree with that.

Getting back to the ice epidemic or problem, we need to make sure that as a parliament and as a community we do everything in our power to minimise the scourge of this dreadful drug. That is why I am pleased that the Prime Minister announced on 8 April this year the establishment of a National Ice Taskforce to develop a National Ice Action Strategy. The aforementioned Mr Lay, the former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, is heading that body. He will be greatly assisted by my colleague, the Nationals' Assistant Minister for Health, Fiona Nash, and the Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan who, I have to say, is doing a fantastic job in his portfolio. They will oversee this taskforce and lead the government's response to the ice issue, which is also very important to Labor members and to the crossbenchers. We as a parliament must do everything in our power to minimise the impact it is having on individuals and the community.

We just heard the member for Paterson say that ice users are at an increased risk of a range of health related harms—most notably psychosis and mental illness. One snort, one injection, one puff or one insertion—whichever way you take it—can destroy your life and your health. That is how dangerous it is, and the trouble is that it is so damn readily available and so damn cheap. That is one of the biggest worries. Kay Hull told me that, whereas they need meth labs in garages, with ice it can be done out of the boot of a car. That is such a worry because it is then so mobile.

Around 200,000 Australians have used ice in the past 12 months. What an alarming statistic! Since 2010 the number of people requiring treatment has more than doubled. Professor Curran at the emergency ward of the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital would tell you that the rate is far higher in his section of the hospital than that national statistic. The impacts of the increased use of ice are being felt nationwide, as I say, but no more so than in regional Australia. Kay Hull, who is the chair of the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Drugs and a key member of the National Ice Taskforce, has been pivotal in driving the message of the dangers of ice not only in her former electorate of Riverina but throughout Australia. I would certainly encourage members to contact Mrs Hull and invite her to a community ice forum in their electorates and do the same with Senator Nash, who has already travelled more than 20,000 kilometres—the length and the breadth of the nation—to gather firsthand accounts and information as part of the National Ice Taskforce.

In the time I have left, I want to share a few more alarming statistics. Wagga Wagga police have arrested more than 50 people since initiating their Strike Force Calyx antidrug blitz on 16 June. More than 30 sellers of illegal drugs such as meth, cannabis and ecstasy have now fronted the Wagga Wagga local court since the crackdown began. Disturbingly, between five and 10 people are caught driving under the influence of illicit drugs—quite often ice—in Wagga Wagga each and every day. That is horrendous. They are mobile time bombs; if they do not kill themselves, they will certainly kill somebody else. I commend the Wagga Wagga Local Area Commander, Bob Noble. When he was asked on national radio, 'What's the best thing parents could do?', he told listeners on 2GB: 'Look after your kids. Talk to your kids.'

Ban mobile phones at the dinner table and talk to your kids about their futures and about ice. Listen to them, but, more importantly, tell them about the dangers. It is good advice; it is old-fashioned advice but good advice. I commend this legislation to the House.

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