Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

McCARTHY (—) (): The government opposes this motion. Unlike those opposite, we believe in territory rights and we respect the rights of territorians to determine the laws, policies and programs under which they're governed.

This is a matter for the ACT assembly, a parliament that has been democratically elected by the people of the ACT. We come to this place to debate national matters that concern the Commonwealth of Australia, and of course we take the matter of tackling illicit drugs seriously, but this particular bill was passed through the ACT Legislative Assembly in October 2022. If this was anything other than a stunt, we would have heard about the opposition's concerns a year ago.

This is yet another blatant attempt by the opposition to limit territory rights and interfere with ACT self-government. Even the ACT opposition leader has rejected this motion as a blatant attempt to limit territory rights. The ACT opposition leader, Ms Lee, has said:

The Canberra Liberals will always stand up for territory rights and I am very concerned about any step to diminish that.

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I do not agree with this action taken by the federal Coalition to seek to overturn legislation that was passed by the ACT Assembly.