Attorney-General’s drug reform ‘compromise’ sent back to the drawing board

Drug reforms proposed by the Attorney-General and knocked back by the Premier would have handed users in the city softer penalties than those in the bush, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

A radical plan to give cautions or fines to people caught with prohibited drugs in the cities while keeping criminal penalties in place in the bush is the latest plan to have been knocked back by government ministers, more than 18 months after proposed drug reforms first sparked a civil war in cabinet.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the latest iteration of Attorney-General Mark Speakman’s proposed changes to drug offences included a “compromise” to keep existing penalties in place for the bush while trialling diversion schemes for drug users in the city.

However the proposal was knocked back by cabinet during a marathon five hour meeting last week, with Premier Dominic Perrottet once again sending the submission back to the drawing board.

The compromise was proposed as a way to strike a deal to finalise the government’s response to a Special Commission of Inquiry into Ice, delivered in March 2020.

The inquiry called for either decriminalisation of prohibited drugs for personal use, or for a diversion scheme to be implemented.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman’s latest response to the ice inquiry has been shot down by cabinet. Picture: Richard Dobson

Mr Speakman’s first proposal to change drug possession offences, brought to cabinet more than 18 months ago, included a warning system in which users would be given three “strikes” before criminal penalties.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph at the time, that proposal was sensationally shot down by ministers worried about going soft on drugs.

The government is believed to have moved away from issuing straight cautions for initial drug possession offences, instead considering fines and mandatory referrals to intervention programs.

However there is still “significant concern about being perceived to be soft on crime,” The Telegraph was told.

Ministers told The Daily Telegraph that last week’s proposed compromise had little support in the room.

Under the proposal, those caught with a small quantity of drugs in the city would be cautioned or fined.

However, the discussion was said to be a “constructive” debate to get a “serious response,” rather than “acrimonious”.

Ministers fear that backbenchers would kill off any plan seen to be watering down drug offences even if it made it through cabinet.

There is also anger that the issue has not been finalised less than 10 months before the next election.

Mr Perrottet last week said the government had done “significant work” on its response to the ice inquiry and would have a response “shortly”.

“My view is take time and get it right, (do not) rush in and get it wrong,” he said.