David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This is a historic day. It is the first time that the federal parliament has had before it the opportunity to vote on a plan to legalise cannabis across the country. We're taking a big step today away from treating cannabis as part of the failing war on drugs and instead putting forward a model where cannabis use will be safer, where we reduce harms and we answer the growing community demand to just get on and legalise it.

I want to thank everybody who's been part of getting this bill, the Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023, here today—the some 9,000 people who put in submissions to our draft bill, the thousands of others who have engaged with us and those who are watching today, either in the chamber or online, who are looking to this parliament and Senate to finally vote to legalise cannabis after decades and decades of a failed war of criminalising it. They want this to happen, and I want to thank everybody who has been a part of making this happen today. I want to also thank people for the trust they've placed in me, my office and the Greens to bring forward this legislation that has such wide backing in the community.

We consulted broadly, and, of the 9,000 people who engaged with our draft legislation, 99 per cent said: 'Get on and do this. Legalise it.' Do you know what else we did? We actually listened to the responses that came from the 9,000 people who engaged, and we made our legislation better. We fixed up a bunch of things to ensure that every adult household could grow up to six plants without a licence, because we heard that's what people wanted. We heard people wanted safe labelling. We heard they wanted an independent regulator. We improved our bill with the help of all of you, so thank you again.

It's likely this work won't end today, but let's take a moment to reflect on how huge this moment is and how many people have come together to help craft this bill—constitutional lawyers, long-term cannabis campaigners, law reform campaigners and people across the country who see the opportunity that comes with legalising cannabis, which is to radically reduce harm in the criminal justice system and create a multibillion-dollar legitimate and thriving industry. They are watching today to see what the politicians they've sent here are going to do with this bill. They're watching the Labor Party and they're watching the coalition, and they're wondering whether they're stuck in the 1950s or whether they understand it's 2024.

I can give you this promise: we will keep fighting. The Greens will keep fighting for this reform because we know a couple of pretty fundamental things. We know that cannabis use in Australia is extremely common—it's happening—and the denials we're going to get from the major parties about that fundamental fact will have millions of Australians shaking their heads. We know that the community supports cannabis legalisation and is asking this parliament to get on with it. We know that leaving cannabis illegal causes multiple harms—harms to our criminal justice system, corruption of our police and the criminalisation of about 60,000 people a year, primarily because they're found with a joint in their pocket. We also know that making cannabis legal can remove multiple harms. For the first time people will be able to buy product, knowing that it has met safety standards. They'll know the strength. They'll know it's not contaminated. They'll know it's organic, if it says 'organic' on the label, and they'll see from the labelling where to get help if they need it.

I'm excited about the model for legalisation that we have on the table today. It's a model for home grown, for those who want to. It's a model for community co-ops, growing a plant for safe consumption and sale. If passed, it would be the first time to put quality control, strength and labelling requirements on cannabis products so that people know what they're buying. I'll tell you one of the things that came so clearly in the consultation we had: people want to know—and they have the right to know—what they're putting in their bodies. That labelling and product quality are essential.

Today we could create a new sustainable industry, with thousands of jobs across the country. These are green jobs. Legalising cannabis will also have the double effect of taking billions of dollars away from organised crime, disempowering drug dealers, and it will allow us to put billions of dollars into public revenue for essential services, not least health and drug programs for those who need it. Let's be clear: any senator who votes against this bill is voting to keep billions of dollars going to organised crime. Organised crime is looking to the coalition and Labor to save its business model today, and we want to break it. All of this can be achieved if we just agree to allow adults the right to choose—if they want a beer, a gummy or a cannabis drink on a Friday night after a full-on week at work, or maybe a Thursday night after a full-on week in the Senate.

We recognise that there has been important cannabis law reform in the ACT. I remember hearing the cries of fear from the coalition, when the ACT did significant cannabis reform, two years ago, that somehow or other the ACT would become a crime mecca. I remember them saying there'd be party boats full of drug taking on the lake. What a bizarre failure that particular attack has been, because none of that has happened. The sky is still above us here in the ACT. Indeed, we have seen people, particularly young people and First Nations people, no longer being dragged into the criminal justice system. That's what changed in the ACT, and that's good. I recognise the efforts of Greens MPs and cannabis campaigners around the country that made that happen. I know that, without a national push, without us doing this here as often as it takes to make it happen, we are going to be waiting decades for piecemeal cannabis reform in the states and territories. We need a plan to make cannabis legal.

I have to say this: we're likely to see Labor and the coalition step up and oppose legalising cannabis. They oppose it despite the fact that millions of Australians want it. Millions more around the world already have access to legalised cannabis. Again, we see the Labor Party and the coalition coming forward saying, 'No, no, no, no, no.' They're like the worst South Park episode you've ever seen. They keep pretending cannabis isn't widely available and used. They keep suggesting that those who consume cannabis are criminals and should not be listened to. Almost half of Australian adults have tried cannabis at one point or another, and we're going to see the coalition and Labor come up and say, 'They should be in jail' and 'They should be criminals.' We say that law isn't us; that's what we say.

Labor and the coalition keep pretending the war on drugs is working and that we live in a world where drug use only happens rarely, like the occasions where one of their South Australian MPs is caught live on video or the endless numbers of coalition and Labor MPs who say, when they're caught, that they only ever tried it once. What a nonsense that is.

Government data shows 8.8 million adult Australians have consumed cannabis at one point or another in their time. Are Labor and the coalition going to say they should go to jail? Is that really what they're going to say? They're happy to call 8.8 million Australians criminals? It's a disgrace. That's why people are so sick of politics as usual, controlled by corporate interests and politicians with the imagination of a brick. My office keeps hearing from people using cannabis to deal with anxiety or pain or just to relax, and many of them can't get it through the incredibly expensive medicinal cannabis regime. We think they should have a right, as adults, to choose what they put in their bodies in a well-regulated legal scheme. If choosing cannabis instead of products from pharmaceutical companies is working for you, as it does for many Australians, the Greens say you should have that choice. If you'd rather have a brownie instead of a beer, of course you should be allowed to do that if you're an adult in this country. One day, we'll be able to sit together in a cannabis cafe, chill out together and think about the decades it took us to get there—maybe with some organically grown local product.