Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support what the previous speakers have said. I suspect I'm probably the only person in this place who has been to medicinal cannabis conferences at Nimbin for the past two years. I never though I would be saying this, but I appreciate it that Senator Hanson, although she did vote against it, is now voting with us. I think she had been spooked by a last-minute scare that was sent through the government from the health minister at that time.

I won't go over all the old ground. I do agree with Senator Di Natale: the government has to change its law. We've got cannabis oil companies on the stock exchange. We've got the Victorian government supporting marijuana being grown in Victoria. I've had to forward a plan that Norfolk Island should become like Tasmania and do with medical marijuana what they do with poppies in Tasmania.

When you're in Nimbin you talk to people, you hear other cases. I talked to a woman whose daughter had 900 epileptic convulsions. She has to risk criminal prosecution to get oil for her child. I met a man in Nimbin, an elderly man with brain cancer, who risks criminal prosecution to get access to that product. That is why it is wrong. It is time for us to change. The government has been obstructionist. We did get disallowance motions through, but they are not following the spirit of the Senate. They are not following through with the spirit of the law. They don't care about people who are desperately in need of this treatment.

One of the last things I did before I jumped the shark was a big story on medicinal cannabis on a Sunday night television program. Some of the stories there were absolutely horrifying. I plead with the government and I plead with the health minister: go and look at that story. Go back there and see the sorts of cases we had of people and their children suffering. I met one man in Nimbin who'd been to jail because he grew marijuana and made cannabis oil for his neighbour. He did time in jail for it. I plead with the government: stop being obstructionist. Get on with it and change the bloody law.

Question agreed to.