Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

We can see from them, obviously, that they're all going to buddy up together again to ensure that there's no transparency, and I think that that is just a continuation of the appalling behaviour that we have seen from this Labor-Greens-Pocock alliance.

In the past decade there have been inquiries to look at these sorts of legislative issues that come via the territories. In fact, only recently an inquiry was undertaken, at the behest of Senator Pocock, into the management of feral horses in the Australian Alps. He was pretty keen for us to push that one forward. In fact, that was his idea. But, whoa, now it's trampling on Canberrans' rights, the ACT's rights. There is an inquiry into the Commonwealth Games cancellation, and there was one on the need for nationally consistent approaches to alcohol fuelled violence.

It doesn't take much thought power to see that, on its face alone, the ACT is about to unleash something that goes well beyond its borders and, as such, requires national leadership, federal scrutiny and possible intervention. So, to the details: what does this bill actually entail? Among other things, this bill allows a person to carry 1½ grams of ice, 1½ grams of cocaine or a gram of heroin without fear of any criminal conviction or punishment more than a small fine. These aren't recreational drugs we're talking about here. These are highly addictive, life-altering, psychosis-inducing, family-destroying drugs that this government wants to allow people to access without concern. In fact, the ACT government seems to think that to deal with people's addiction and the incarceration that could possibly flow on from that addiction you actually just reduce the punishment, because how could these poor people be punished for being deeply addicted to an illicit substance? That's aside from the fact of personal use, recreational use. People have free will and that must be respected, and they have to live with their choices. But we should provide supports and frameworks to help people break the cycle of drug use and addiction which could lead to imprisonment. And we shouldn't remove in total the carriage of justice because of this. In fact, we need to step up and make sure that we are working with the people who are utilising these substances, instead of risking the release of both the revolting and the criminal. You're enticing young people who are still developing mentally to succumb to peer pressure. As we know, teenagers and young people like to try things. You are now opening up the door to allow them to try drugs without the fear of punishment that would normally be there.

We do know that one gram of heroin is up to five times the average lethal dose. I assume that the ACT government is going to have some sort of warning. I don't know; maybe it could be like on cigarette packets. Their little baggies with their gram of heroin could say it is five servings, five doses, to make sure people know not to take the whole hit at the one time. I assume there'll be a drug use guide going out in the ACT to say that, whilst it may be one gram for personal use, it is potentially five times a fatal dose. Let's hope that these people aren't trying it for the first time and thinking, 'Well, if the ACT government tells me one gram is okay for personal use, it must be okay for me to use the whole whack in one go.' How will we know?

The police are going to be dealing with this. I think the other interesting thing—as we hear a lot of smug and derogatory comments from those at the end of the chamber—

will be what we hear from them when we start to see a spike in criminal activity in the ACT, an increase in crimes like burglary, theft and car break-ins. People who want to have that gram of heroin or 1½ grams of ice for personal use quite often don't have the cash for it just lying around. In opening up the doors and increasing this level of access, we're going to see an increase in the level of crime so that they can access the drugs they can then legally carry around. It will be interesting to hear whether or not those opposite, particularly those who represent people in the ACT, have any concerns when the crime rate goes up. Of course, there will be no causation between their open and free drug policies and increases in crime!

It would be interesting, too, to know what they think the benefit is. What's the upside for them here? Does anyone know what the upside is? We know from examples overseas that there have been nothing but downsides for those communities who have liberalised any of their drug policies. Just to reiterate what Senator Scarr said, I've heard from friends who used to live in San Francisco about the state of the place now. In fact, when you go into a hotel—and there are fewer of them in San Francisco because the tourism market has basically gone—you walk through something to clean the bottom of your shoes like for foot-and-mouth disease. Because there's now so much human faeces on the streets of San Francisco you have to clean your shoes going into hotels. It's absolutely disgraceful. It's heartbreaking. It was such a beautiful city and it's now a complete and utter basket case. It has been driven by Democratic governments over there and their liberal policies around social issues such as drugs.

The AMA in particular—I'm sure one of the 100 per cent that were supportive at the inquiry—said:

1. There is clear medical evidence that methamphetamine, and particularly crystal methamphetamine ('ice') is a very harmful drug at the individual, community and societal levels.

2. Methamphetamine is not a 'recreational', 'soft' or 'party' drug and should never be referred to as such. Every effort must be made to avoid normalising methamphetamine use or minimising its harmful effects.

3. Acute methamphetamine psychosis is one of the most damaging health consequences of methamphetamine use. Acutely, it presents a major safety issue for health care staff and the intoxicated patient and his or her family.

Ice induces psychosis, paranoid delusions and hallucinations, severe aggression and violent behaviour. I also hope that those opposite, who are going to team up together to stop this inquiry going forward, don't cry and talk about what happens if a nurse or a doctor is attacked in hospital whilst someone is having an ice psychosis episode whilst walking around carrying their 1½ grams of ice without any impact whatsoever.

It is absolutely disgraceful the contempt that is being demonstrated towards the police, the ambulance services and the frontline health services, like doctors and nurses in public hospitals. It's all so that you can claim that you are somehow liberalising and supporting recreational drug use. It's just an insult to everybody, and people know it. This is about an inquiry. If there's 100 per cent support then what are they afraid of? Maybe they should welcome the inquiry. One hundred per cent of people are going to turn up and say: 'Yay. It's great. Free drugs for everyone'—Heffo was on the mark. I think that's probably not what people are going to say. People are going to say that there are huge risks here and lots of risks for those I just mentioned—the police, the ambulance officers, the doctors and the nurses at the forefront.

I want to say something to the parents who look at these things in Canberra and really do fear for their children. I have just been accused of being from the 50s—or whatever insult those at the other end of the chamber who are intellectually bereft have come up with. I'm a parent of teenagers. I know many of us have kids. We worry about these things. We don't want our kids to have access to these drugs, particularly these synthetic drugs. They are dangerous and unknown. They have been shown to have lifelong ramifications. They have life-ruining impacts not only for the child, the teenager or young person who takes these drugs but also for their family. There's the total contempt of those opposite, who continue to buddy up with the Greens and David Pocock in their alliance. They show contempt for those families. Shame on you. It's an absolute shame, but then again what else could we expect from this mob?