Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is the consequence when you judge a policy on its intent and not its outcomes: you have a ballooning illicit trade, which is to the benefit of those people who, let's face it, are the scum of the earth—organised gangs and those who seek to take advantage of the legislative arrangements and work the consequences of legislation and regulation to their own commercial benefit. I would have thought that people in this parliament would look at that situation and say, 'It is a travesty.' We have, of course, seen this before. If we go back to the prohibition movement in the United States in the 1920s, unsurprisingly, people produced products at a low price but were able to charge high prices because of their seemingly illicit and illegal nature. What occurred, of course, was that people found ways to profiteer and to make enormous benefits out of it for their own personal gain. And, frankly, they left a trail of human tragedy and misery behind them; but that did not concern them, hence I use the expression 'scum of the earth'.

That is the problem that we continue to face in this policy space. That's why we have to reflect very seriously on our policy objectives and what we're seeking to do in terms of achieving them and implementing them. We know that where there is a regulation that is unjust or has some sort of exceptional consequence, particularly for an interchangeable product, there is a way around it. There has been a long tradition of this. I used the example going back to the prohibition movement, where people found justifications to continue their consumption of alcohol. Some people used to shroud it in the environment of their faith and that they needed it as part of their access to faith. But, more critically, even people who were trying to do the right thing and comply with the law found ways around it—like people selling hops, barley and water and putting warning signs up: 'Warning, if you mix these ingredients then you will break the law and create beer.' That's how people got around it and took advantage of the legislative arrangements. Those are the sorts of lessons we should learn from and not repeat.

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