Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Ellison. Will the minister update the Senate on the Australian government’s commitment to the fight against illicit drugs? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have said many times before in this chamber, the fight against drugs is on three fronts. The first is education. We need to educate Australians, particularly young Australians, as to the dangers of illicit drugs and thereby reduce demand. As well as that, on the health front we need to rehabilitate those people who have a drug addiction, a problem with drugs, and to put them back into the community as useful members of our society. The third front is law enforcement to reduce supply. We have seen great examples of where law enforcement interdiction has achieved a reduction in the supply of heroin. We have seen that evidenced by the reduction in purity levels.

We are also working with the states and territories, through the Australian National Council on Drugs, in relation to formulating a national strategy to deal with drugs across the board, from alcohol right through cannabis, amphetamines, heroin—the whole gamut of illicit substances—and how we approach that as a nation. The Australian National Council on Drugs, I am pleased to say, had a meeting recently with health officials and law enforcement officials and put out a statement dealing with the areas where we need to work on the fight against illicit drugs in this country.

Importantly, we announced the new chairman of that body last week. I was very pleased to hear that John Herron, who is well known to many senators in this chamber, has been appointed as chairman of the ANCD. He will bring to that position wide-ranging experience as a medical practitioner, a person who has been involved extensively not only in areas of health but in areas such as this. He has had a distinguished career in public life, serving Australia overseas and in this chamber. He follows the very good work carried out by Major Brian Watters, formerly of the Salvation Army, who did excellent work in leading the ANCD, as the premier body, in the fight against illicit drugs.

I stress again that this is a fight that all governments have to join in. It is not a fight that the Australian government can fight successfully on its own, nor is it one that any state or territory government can fight successfully on its own. We need to band together to continue this fight against illicit drugs. In this regard, we urge all other political parties to join us in this approach.

I was asked what other policies there are. We have seen that the Greens have changed their policy recently. We would certainly like to see a greater commitment from the Greens in fighting illicit drugs in those three areas that I have mentioned. I would also call upon the Leader of the Opposition to make his position very clear on where he stands on heroin injection rooms. That is not a policy of this government. We believe it has not worked in New South Wales. We believe that if the New South Wales government could find a way out of that program it would. It has been costly and it has not delivered the results.

The three-pronged approach that we have engaged in—which has involved around $1 billion worth of expenditure—is the way to go in fighting illicit drugs on the fronts of health, education and law enforcement. On the law enforcement front, we continue to intercept drugs—large amounts and small. I was happy to see that, at Perth Airport, we arrested a woman—who is appearing in the Perth court today—allegedly carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin. Thousands of hits of that drug could have reached the streets of Australia.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.