COMMISSIONER COLVIN:
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the AFP’s Majura Training Facility. It’s a cool morning, but a little bit nicer in here.
It’s a wonderful pleasure on behalf of the AFP to welcome, of course, the Prime Minister along this morning, as well as Ministers Nash and Keenan, and I’m also joined here by Bryan Roach, who is the Chair of Crime Stoppers Australia board.
Of course, you’ve all just seen a walkthrough demonstration of a roadside drug test. It’s a complicated process and can take some time, but as you’ve heard us say before, the statistics in Australia and the statistics here in Canberra tell us that one in ten of those people – members of the public – that we pull over for a random roadside drug test are returning a positive test. So, this is a real issue for the community in terms of illicit drug-affected drivers.
I’ll hand over to the Prime Minister now, but again, thank you very much for your attendance this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Commissioner. Look, I’m going to ask Minister Michael Keenan and Minister Nash to say a few words before I do, but thank you so much for having us.
JUSTICE MINISTER:
Thank you, Commissioner. Thanks, Prime Minister, Minister Nash, Bryan.
We’re facing a very significant problem in Australia with the increased use of ice. We’re finding that’s having an impact on our frontline emergency services workers. It’s certainly having an impact on all our law enforcement agencies. And the impact is with the increasing use of ice, we’re finding people, for example, would be driving under the influence of it and endangering other road users.
These are the sorts of impacts we’re finding from organised criminals, particularly international organised criminal syndicates, targeting Australia because of the higher price that we pay for crystal methamphetamine here in Australia.
The Government is determined to do all that we can about it. We’ve asked the former chief commissioner of Victoria Police, Ken Lay, to head up the national taskforce that will advise the Prime Minister and his first minister colleagues on a national strategy.
We’re reinvesting our law enforcement agencies to make sure that they’ve got what they need to take the fight up to the criminals that peddle in this menace.
Just last week, the Prime Minister joined me and Minister Dutton at the Australian Crime Commission, where we announced an investment of $18 million in the Crime Commission’s capability to take on the criminal syndicates that peddle in ice.
We’re determined, as a Commonwealth Government, to lead a national effort to stop the criminal gangs that peddle in this menace and to turn Australians away from what can be a very dark and trying path of addiction.
I will now hand over to Minister Nash to say a few words as well.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH:
Thanks, Michael.
There is no doubt that this drug ice is devastating families and communities across the country. The taskforce headed up by Ken Lay is doing a tremendous job collating information, research and data. The interim report has come back now to the Prime Minister and to COAG and we’re awaiting the final report very shortly.
This is not something the Commonwealth can tackle alone. It is going to have to be with states and territories and with local communities. Law enforcement is so important in tackling this drug, but we also need to make sure we’re tackling primary prevention and education. We want particularly our young people never to start. We need to make sure that we’re looking at rehab and treatment services, what’s working and what’s not.
People right across this country are being touched by this devastating drug and local communities need to be part of the process of tackling this drug.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, Fiona and thank you, Michael. Thank you, Commissioner Colvin and thank you, Bryan Roach from Crime Stoppers for being here today.
Yes, ice is a dreadful scourge. It is an absolutely dreadful scourge.
As Minister Nash has pointed out, it's devastating the lives of individuals, families and communities right around Australia and unlike previous drug plagues this one seems to be particularly prevalent in regional Australia as well. It's not just an inner-city phenomenon. It's a suburban phenomenon. It's a regional phenomenon as well.
Because people on ice benders are so dangerous – not just to themselves, but to others – there's a propensity to violence. We've seen a spike in attacks on primary healthcare workers in emergency departments associated with the rapid increase in ice usage. Precisely because this is so dangerous, we need to be ramping up our efforts against it.
As Minister Keenan pointed out, we last week announced $18 million to improve our criminal intelligence gathering operations overseas. On the weekend, yesterday, with Minister Dutton I announced a national “Dob in a Dealer” hotline and we'll be working very closely with Crime Stoppers on that, building on a successful precedent in Victoria.
What we are demonstrating today is the need for more roadside drug testing. It's quite a complex process as you've seen today, but what we are looking to do in the months ahead is try to ensure that this is a simpler process because what we have discovered is that now, drug-affected road users are doing even more damage it seems than alcohol-affected road users.
In 2013 in Victoria, there were 39 ice-related road fatalities as opposed to 24 alcohol-related road fatalities. So, ice seems to be doing more damage on our roads, killing more people on our roads, than alcohol. That's why the demonstration that you saw today is, as it were, the shape of things to come – only we’d want to do it better and more quickly in the months and years ahead than we're able to right now.
This, as Minister Nash and Minister Keenan have pointed out, is part of a national mobilisation, led by the Commonwealth Government, to try to ensure that we minimise and if possible eliminate the harm that ice is doing to our communities.
As I keep saying, whenever I talk to the Australian people, our priority is jobs, growth and community safety. I'll have more to say about jobs and growth later today, but obviously right now we've got to be focussed on community safety and that's why the fight against ice is so important.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, as I understand it, the drug testing is quite expensive. How many people do you propose in drug and alcohol testing – if they're pulled over for alcohol, will you be testing everyone for drugs and are you putting anymore more money towards this?
PRIME MINISTER:
In the fullness of time and in a perfect world you would like all random roadside testing to involve drugs as well as alcohol. As you rightly say, though, there is at the moment much greater cost and complexity with roadside drug testing than for random roadside alcohol testing and one of the things we want to do is do the research and the development work needed so that we can get the cost and the speed of roadside drug tests down to the sort of cost and speed that we've got with roadside alcohol tests.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, why are you increasing policing when people like Ken Lay and Mike Phelan have kind of said that policing is not the way to go in attacking – or over-policing – is not the way to go in attacking ice?
PRIME MINISTER:
If I may say so, that's not quite what they're saying. Policing is not the totality of the answer but policing is a very important part of the answer and the last thing that any Australian would want is ice-impaired drivers on our roads. The last thing anyone would want is ice-impaired drivers on our roads and, as I say, in 2013, there were 39 ice-related road fatalities in Victoria compared to just 24 alcohol-related road fatalities in Victoria. We rightly crack down hard on drink driving. We need to crack down just as hard on drug-affected driving because anyone who is not properly in control of himself or herself is a menace behind the wheel.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, are you confident the states are taking the threat of ice as seriously as you're seeking to?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think all the states are certainly gearing up to take this more and more seriously in the months and years ahead. What I want to stress is that this is a dreadful, dreadful scourge and just as we take drink driving incredibly seriously, just as we say there are no excuses for drink driving, just as we say that drink driving kills, we've got to have the same approach to drug impaired driving and illegal drugs are very dangerous. Yes there are a whole lot of factors in the case of every addict but in the end if you are dealing drugs, you are killing people. If you are using drugs, you are potentially killing yourself and that message has got to get out there far and wide in our community and certainly as far as this Government is concerned that is the constant message: illegal drugs do you very serious harm. There can be no excuses for dealing in them or using them.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, isn't this an area of state responsibility, though? Why are you announcing this today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is an area where the Commonwealth is inevitably involved because whenever these sorts of matters are raised the states usually expect national leadership. For instance, the states are looking to us to provide national leadership on legislation for unexplained wealth to give you just one example, and that's something where we hope to have more to say in coming weeks.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, so that you can focus on issues like community safety, which you say is a priority, do you want Cabinet to decide one way or another on the question of gay marriage?
PRIME MINISTER:
That was a very lovely segue! I compliment you on your smart segue, but can we – we'll finish dealing with this issue and then we'll take other issues. Any other questions on ice?
QUESTION:
The demonstration that was set up, the subject who was remarkably acquiescent and we keep hearing the levels of violence, are you or Mr Colvin perhaps, able to explain to us how often you'd have someone who is acquiescent who has been using ice or how difficult it gets to arrest people or to test them?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think, Brendan, that's a very good question because plainly if you are ice-impacted you are likely to be uncooperative and that's one of the reasons why the job of policing is so challenging, and one of the reasons why we should have such enormous respect for our community police officers, because of the difficulty and the challenge of the job they're doing. One of the reasons why we need to move as swiftly as we can to swifter and more readily applicable roadside drug testing techniques is precisely to deal with things like that but, Commissioner, I might now through to you.
COMMISSIONER COLVIN:
Thanks, Prime Minister. Brendan, as we've explained before, ice affects people in different ways and it certainly is a factor in some of the more violent crimes that we see across the community. In terms of affected drivers that we pull over, yes, we are starting to see more and more drivers be uncooperative with police, particularly if they're on ice. That does often lead to their arrest for their uncooperative nature or their assaults on police as well as the fact that they may well have tested positive to driving under the influence of ice. So, it's a concern for all first responders not just police, it’s a concern for our health workers particularly, ambulance drivers, workers at hospitals who are increasingly finding that people affected by ice are particularly uncooperative, and particularly dangerous and aggressive towards emergency service responders.
QUESTION:
Can we try another segue, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, the point that you are making I suppose by way of your question – I might ask the Commissioner and Bryan if you wish to withdraw now that's fine. The point you were making is this is a Government which is absolutely focussed on jobs, growth and community safety. We are absolutely focussed on jobs, growth and community safety. Now, I know you want to bring us on to other issues from time to time and obviously I am happy to deal with them but I want to assure you all, I want to assure the Australian people, that the work of Government goes on. Every day, the work of Government goes on and our mobilisation against ice, our national security work, our border protection work, our economic security work, our determination to ensure that we are getting the jobs and the investment that we need, that is all always front and centre for all of my colleagues. Now, do you want to repeat that question?
QUESTION:
Just so you can focus on those issues, do you want Cabinet to decide one way or another on the mechanism for a decision on gay marriage this week?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I want to make absolutely crystal clear is that the Coalition Party Room, as was quite proper, made a very strong decision last week and the decision was that we would keep faith with the electorate, maintain the position that we took to the last election, through this term of parliament, but in the next term of parliament, this matter will go to the people for their decision. Now, there are a few loose ends to tie up, and that will be dealt with in the next couple of weeks.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what does it say that you've made, though, a conscious decision to be here tackling a quite separate issue this morning, at the very time that Warren Entsch – an MP of yours – is pressing ahead and introducing the same-sex legislation? What should we read from that about your views and your priorities?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously my priority is jobs, growth and community safety. I absolutely respect the rights of Members of Parliament to bring private members’ bills forward and as you know I've had a lot of discussions over quite a long period of time over several years now with Warren on this subject and Warren certainly told me that he would be bringing his Bill in this week and I have nothing but respect for him. He is a terrific Member of Parliament and he's a great Australian and he’s a close friend of mine.
QUESTION:
Over the past few days have you formed a view one way or another whether this should be a plebiscite or a referendum?
PRIME MINISTER:
The important thing is that it's got to be a people's choice – that’s the important thing: it should be a people's choice. This is something that has been the way it currently is for hundreds of years. It's a very big decision to make a change like this. I don't say that it's not a decision that the community won't embrace ultimately, but the decision that came very strongly out of our Party Room last week was that this should not be the politicians' decision, it should be the people's decision, and that's what will happen in the next term of Parliament.
QUESTION:
Do you think that voters would cop the million dollar price tag of a plebiscite?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, I think it’s a little more than that…
QUESTION:
A hundred million, sorry!
PRIME MINISTER:
…Obviously to have an attendance ballot is an expensive business, but when you're talking about what is a very big social change, when you are talking about what its supporters would say is a very big social advance, I think we should be prepared to facilitate a people's choice. As we saw today, I think that's what the people are looking for: I think they are looking for the politicians to trust them with a choice of this magnitude.
QUESTION:
From that previous answer, you’re not expecting Cabinet tonight to settle on when or how?
PRIME MINISTER:
We're not going to dwell on this and we're not going to drag out the process, but no, what I think is that we've got a lot on our plate today, but very shortly we will finalise the precise process for going forward, but it will be a people's decision and it will be in the next term of parliament.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, I’m going to ask you to cast your mind back to 1981. Do you recall Dyson Heydon being on the selection panel for your Rhodes scholarship?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it’s a long time ago and the idea that I gather is being peddled that somehow he and I cooked up a conspiracy 34 years ago against the Labor Party is absurd.
QUESTION:
Just whether he was involved in the selection of you getting it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I just can't recall, I'm sorry.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, has suggested that there needs to be changes to legislation to stop what he's suggesting is vigilante approaches to courts on the parts of various environmental groups. Do you agree with that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I do think this is a very serious issue and thank you for raising it. As you know, particularly with the Adani mine in Queensland, we have seen a sustained campaign of harassment through the courts of this proposal. Now, we must have the highest environmental standards and they must be applied and enforced. I don't want any development – whether it's a mine or a building or a road – to go ahead if it doesn't meet the highest environmental standards, but once the tests have been applied, once the tests have been passed, the projects must be able to go ahead.
What we've seen is again and again and again new fronts being opened, all of a sudden new issues being raised after the matter has seemingly been resolved and this is just unfair. It is absolutely unfair and let's not forget what's at stake here: it's a $21 billion investment that will create 10,000 jobs in Queensland, in a part of Queensland that has been particularly impacted by the mining downturn, and this mine will provide power to 100 million Indians who currently don't have power and we all know the difference between life with electrical power and life without electrical power. A decent life by modern standards is almost impossible without access to electrical power.
So, a very great deal is at stake here and what I want to see is a determination by our country, a commitment by our leadership, not to needlessly stand in the way of investment and jobs. This is a big issue not just for the Government, this should be a big issue for the Parliament, ensuring that investment and jobs go ahead, ensuring that the rules are fair but they're also fairly applied and at the moment it seems like there's never any end to this.
All reasonable processes must have a reasonable conclusion and that's the difficulty at the moment. We've got this particular project most notably but perhaps others as well that seem to have been subject to a form of legal sabotage. Now, I'm not for a second saying that people should not be able to exercise their legal rights, I'm not for a second criticising the courts. What I am being very critical of is the tactics of some elements of the green movement and their apparent ability to play games and to game the system. That must end.
Thank you.
[ends]