Page 3874 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 September 2017
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These offences are part of a comprehensive approach to enhance women’s safety in Canberra. The ACT women’s plan 2016-26, tabled in the Assembly in August 2016, sets out the key directions and priorities for improving outcomes for women and girls living in the ACT. The priorities to be addressed over this 10-year period include health and wellbeing as well as safety. These new offences are designed to encourage anyone considering endangering the health or safety of a member of our community by spiking their food or drink to reconsider their actions.
These new offences are a step forward in addressing the different ways abuse is perpetrated against women and demonstrate the whole-of-government commitment to ending all forms of abuse. This bill sends a strong message that drink and food spiking is not acceptable in our community. I am pleased to commend the bill to the Assembly.
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (12.03): Sadly, we all learn from a young age that we need to be sensible and take care when we head out for a night on the town. Catch up with friends, explore the city and have fun, but also watch how much you drink, make sure you have money for a taxi home and make sure your phone is charged. Young women in particular pick up the cues from their friends and family that they need to stay alert. It is a sad truth that I am sure every woman in this chamber can attest to and one which I wish was, and which should be, unnecessary. The onus should never have to be on the person going out having to watch out for themselves. Be prepared—just in case.
One of the darkest sides of our drinking culture is spiking. As women and as members of the community, we learn to watch out for that one too. Drink spiking is covert by its very nature and even the most vigilant can fall victim to it. Food and drink spiking is a complex issue, so we need to make sure we are tackling it from every angle. Cultural change is crucial. People must learn to always choose respect over manipulation. But cultural change is a slow-moving beast and we need to make sure that our legal framework can operate effectively to detect, deter and punish drink and food spiking in the meantime. The purpose of this bill is to amend our criminal law to better achieve this.
As we have heard, food and drink spiking is scarily prevalent in our community. I know these are statistics that have already been stated, but I think it is worth underlining them again and again. A 2004 report from the Australian Institute of Criminology estimated that there were between 3,000 and 4,000 cases of drink spiking from 2002 to 2003. The data is getting old now but it still serves as a startling reminder of how common drink spiking is, particularly considering it is a crime that suffers, as we heard from the Deputy Chief Minister, from chronic under-reporting. A 2007 report from the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General notes that there is no “typical” case of drink spiking. There is no standard when it comes to the location, victim, intoxicating substance used or motives of the perpetrators.
While many people may have read media reports about the use of Rohypnol or GHB, many cases of drink spiking are much more basic and much more common than we might think. The most common intoxicating substance used in spiking is actually
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