Subjects: Drug abuse prevention
E&OE..................
Thank you very much Major Watters, the Premier of Queensland Peter Beattie, Mr Tony McGrady the Police Minister, Police Commissioner, members of the Australian National Council on Drugs, ladies and gentlemen.
I share completely the personal commitment of the Premier to doing all we can in our respective roles to address the drug problem and the drug challenge in Australia. It is a terrible human tragedy for so many people. Like the Premier, my wife and I have three children, they';re a little older, they';re now in their 20';s but we went through the concern that he spoke of. Touch wood, we hope they';ve emerged unscathed. But nobody should imagine that any part of society, any parent in Australia is somehow or another immune or can be divorced from the drug menace. Parents have to be vigilant, parents have to talk to their children, parents have to explain, parents have to reason, parents have to be realistic enough to understand that it can touch anybody. And they need help, they need the reinforcement that Government policies bring, they need the assistance of the police, they need the understanding of great welfare organisations that are at the coal face of fighting the drug problem.
Yesterday as some of you know the Cabinet had a community luncheon - Federal Cabinet - at the Greek Club. And we invited people from different community organisations to come and talk to us. The second person I met was a lady who';s story appeared in the Courier Mail this morning who';s daughter had died the day before from a drug overdose. And I spent 10 or 15 minutes doing what I could to comfort this poor lady who';s beautiful daughter had taken a drug overdose the day before. And she was carrying her photograph and she was a beautiful girl in her 20';s. Those sorts of things are the, the absolute ultimate sharp end if you like of the human dimension. I tried as best I could to offer some words of comfort to her, of course you can';t in a situation like that. But it drove home to me in a very direct way the ongoing challenge that';s involved for all of us.
And that';s why it';s important on issues like this that political and state-federal differences are put aside and I';m very happy to say that in relation to the diversion agreement program that comes out of our $500 million Tough on Drugs strategy I';ve had the total cooperation of all of the state governments irrespective of their politics. I';ve had strong cooperation from the Labor Premiers of NSW and Victoria and I';m now delighted to say that we';ve now signed an agreement with Queensland. And it does involve this principle of diversion, of giving people who are caught up in a preliminary way with the criminal justice system the option of undertaking rehabilitation and treatment or getting sucked into the criminal justice system. And we';re focusing in Queensland initially as the Premier said on the possession of small amounts of cannabis. And the whole idea is to confront people with a choice, right at the beginning to give them the option that if they undertake treatment and rehabilitation - there';s no problem with the criminal justice system - but if they don';t they run the risk of being caught up in it.
And the whole Tough on Drugs strategy is based on three approaches. One of them is of course to invest resources in law enforcement. And I want to salute the role of the Police, the State Police and the Federal Police and the Customs Service for what they do in relation to seizures of drugs. And despite all of the criticism and cynicism in the media and the bad news stories and the sense that we';re swimming against the tide in relation to drugs, the seizures have actually gone up dramatically in the last few years. And there';s been tremendous cooperation between the Federal Police and the State Police and no one agency can do it on it';s own, they need to work together. And I thank the Police Commissioners in the various states for what they have done.
The second element is education and that is trying to practice the old adage that prevention is better than cure. That educating people at an early age not to start taking drugs and that involves a responsibility of schools. But I will say one thing in a completely non-political way about the recent by-election. I was delighted to see the school principal suggesting that one of the candidates who was advocating the proliferation of marijuana use, I was delighted to see the school principal throw him off the grounds of the school. I think all the other candidates involved, what ever their differences on other issues, would have felt exactly the same way. We need school principals in both the Government sector and in the independent sector to take a tough stand on drugs and I applaud the stand that is taken by so many schools in both the Government and the independent sectors to take that stand.
And the third and very important element in what this agreement is all about is committing resources, more resources towards rehabilitation. I';ve met many people who';ve been touched by the drug problem in a very direct, personal and tragic way. I';ve had a lot of talk back radio calls on the issue. And the most heart rending in a way of the calls I get are from mothers who say that their children want to get onto a programme but they can';t find one or can';t find one quickly enough. And any thing that any of us can do to increase the commitment to programmes and in the case of this diversion agreement we';re committing $19 million towards it at a Federal level in total cooperation with the State Government.
What it will do is to confront people with the opportunity of going into rehabilitation rather than going into the criminal justice system. I think it is a better approach, it is a new approach, it';s an approach that maintains a balanced attack on the drug problem. You need tough law enforcement, you need to grab and prosecute and jail indefinitely the peddlers, you need education and you also need rehabilitation. And we need the cooperation of everybody and that';s what this is about. It';s not about one person or one agency doing it on it';s own, it';s a nation wide assault on a scourge and I';m delighted to have the cooperation of the Queensland Government and I thank the Premier for his total support and the Police Minister. And we';ll work together, I promise you, very closely to make sure that this campaign of ours together will make a difference. And what';s involved of course is the most precious commodity of all, and that is the preservation of the life of our young.
Thank you.
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