Parliamentary record : Part I debates (27 February 1990)
Debates for 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990
1990-02-27
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Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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DEBATES - Tuesday 27 February 1990 Mr MANZIE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 100.1. Amendment agreed to. Mr MANZIE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 100.2. Thi s amends an incorrect reference in subc 1 ause 4( 3) to paragraph (i 1) where it occurs separately, and substitutes in its stead a reference to paragraph (i i 1). Amendment agreed to. Clause 4, as amended, agreed to. Remainder of bill taken as a whole and agreed to. Bill passed remaining stages without debate. MISUSE OF DRUGS BILL (Serial 199) POISONS AND DANGEROUS DRUGS AMENDMENT BILL (Serial 200) CRIMES (FORFEITURE OF PROCEEDS) AMENDMENT BILL (Serial 202) Continued from 25 May 1989. Mr BELL (MacDonnell): Mr Speaker, I and the opposition oppose this legislation. We oppose the legislation because it lies to the children of our community, and we are not prepared. to countenance an approach to a seri ous issue such as drug abuse and substance abuse in thi s commun i ty in this trite form. I believe that, as a whole, this gov~rnment stands condemned for this type of approach to what is arguably one of the most serious problems confronting our community. It has been referred to already today and obviously the Attorney-General is aware of the sessional committee that has been established to look into problems associated with alcohol. I would have thought that, if we were addressing the question of misuse of drugs, alcohol would have been at the head of the list. After alcohol, I would have thought that nicotine would be next on the list. Neither of those 2 dangerous substances, which are so frequent ly mi sused ina 11 western countri es, and nowhere more severe ly I dare say than in the Northern Territory, rate a mention in this legislation. Mr Collins interjecting. Mr BELL: I will pick up the interjection from the member for Sadadeen. I will remind the honourable member of the title of one of these bills. We are talking about the misuse of drugs and, as far as I am concerned, the Misuse of Drugs Bill is a misuse of parliamentary form. The Poisons and Dangerous Drugs Act was well and truly able to deal with the sort of problems that we have. This is mere window-dressing, as was a previous bill that we debated, except that this is dangerous window-dressing in that it is lying to our children. It is lying to our children because we are trying to pretend that the world is different from what it is. It means that we are not telling our kids that alcohol and tobacco are dangerous drugs, but that these other drugs are illegal and that they will be punished severely if they smoke marijuana. They will try it and find that it is not too bad. They will become involved in that subculture and its black market and learn 8829