Page 5465 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
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MS FITZHARRIS: I reiterate: evidence cannot be gained unless you try something. I am disappointed again—
Opposition members interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Members of the opposition, order!
MS FITZHARRIS: Clearly the opposition have realised that they have not sought the right information. Unsurprisingly they have a kneejerk reaction; notably, on the day we were supported by the Capital Health Network and by a medical doctor practising here. The only person from the opposition who had anything to say about this was the shadow attorney-general.
This is a harm minimisation effort. I also have children approaching the same age as many people going to music festivals. Of course it concerns me. I note a response that Mr Hanson quoted from someone who tragically lost a child. I have read similar pieces from parents who have lost children, asking for pill testing. Mr Hanson said that the father said, “You just don’t know what will happen,” and that is exactly right. You do not know what will happen.
Opposition members interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Members, please.
MS FITZHARRIS: Parents around the country who have lost children clearly have different views on what a pill testing trial will offer. What was said on the day we announced the trial was that this was an opportunity to give young people in particular information that they would not otherwise have. That is a key part of why this is an essential harm minimisation approach.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.26): I had intended to speak briefly on one particular issue, but the outrageous comments made by the minister for health in her remarks cannot go untouched. For the minister for health to liken opposition to pill testing—not just our opposition to pill testing but the opposition of other people in the community raising concerns about pill testing—to drug policy in the Philippines is an absolute outrage. It just shows how classy these people are when they are under pressure. This minister is under pressure. She is shown to be badly briefed and badly prepared on a number of occasions. She comes in here and her immediate response is to get down and dirty.
That is an outrageous comment about people who have thought about these issues and do not happen to agree with Ms Fitzharris in her current iteration. She did not always hold these views. They were not the views always expressed by the government; they just happen to be the views expressed at the moment. Because members of the public and members of this place do not always agree, then it is all right for her to get really classy and liken the opposition to drug policy in the Philippines.
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