Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 3067 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

abortion in the territory. I do. I am prepared to stand up for it, and others will as well. It is a matter of whether people are prepared to repeal those silly laws that purport to require women to look at pictures of foetuses when they are considering an abortion. I think that should be repealed and I and others are prepared to stand up for what we believe. I think if it went to a referendum it would most certainly be swept away by public opinion.

Even though the idea of a referendum sounds attractive, there is a principle here that we cannot breach. I am pleased that the numbers look as though they are stacking up against this idea of decision by referendum. Do your job, do the job that you are paid for. You are paid by the community, at fairly significant expense-much more than what many of them earn-to do a job which at the last election you promised to do, or you should have promised to do. You will get the chance at the next election to promise to do a job. If you have got a hidden agenda, you do not deserve to get elected. There is no reason for people to have hidden agendas, and many agendas in relation to this issue were not on the table at the last election.

But public opinion has moved on. I think there will be more people starting to question in the lead-up to the election what candidates are going to do in respect of the issue of heroin and the issue of injecting rooms. I said that we just about know what we are going to get out of a heroin trial. But whatever we choose to do in relation to the provision of heroin, it is important that we have some sort of academic study of the relationship between all facets of the community which are affected by the illicit heroin trade.

As I said earlier, we are almost past the point of talking about a trial-we are at the point where we might as well make the decision to provide heroin on prescription. But either way, you have got to have a pilot program or a trial to work out an appropriate way forward. This has not happened in this country. However, it has happened in other countries and most of the answers are with them.

It is time to move on. We have got to get to a position where we can do something more in the community than is happening now, with people trading on fear about heroin to prevent anything from happening. I think we have got to get past that somehow. I do not think a referendum is the way to do this. We need more people in favour of our position to be elected. But none of this will matter much if Mr Howard or a federal government maintain their position.

This brings me to the point that I was Gary-ed by Mr Humphries. Mr Humphries said that at the last election we walked away from this important issue. No, we did not walk away from it. We maintained our policy; it stayed in place. But I indicated that, because John Howard had decided that the situation was not going to change, we were not prepared to thrash around about it any more, that there was little point in us belting ourselves to death here in the ACT over the issue.

At the time there were some strong opinions about our position, as if we had abandoned something. I understood the strongly held views in the community but I was not prepared to keep banging my head against John Howard's brick wall. We just did not seem to be getting anywhere. Hopefully that will change shortly.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .