ACT drug policy taken to election ‘quietly’: Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith
The ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has been recorded telling activists how the Labor-Greens government decriminalised illicit drugs including cocaine, MDMA and ice by stealth | LISTEN
The ACT Health Minister has boasted about how Canberra's Labor-Greens government was able to “quietly” but quickly decriminalise illicit drugs, including cocaine, MDMA and ice, laying out her strategy to a group of left-wing activists from across the country.
Canberra was the first city in Australia to decriminalise illicit drugs in small quantities last year, with the Labor-Greens coalition moving swiftly to implement the laws as part of a wide-ranging progressive agenda that also includes voluntary assisted dying being potentially offered to teenagers.
Speaking to a room-full of activists at Labor’s national conference, ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith explained how her government was able to “quickly” implement its policy to decriminalise certain drugs after clinching its sixth election win in 2020.
“We took it to the election quietly. But we could point to our platform and say ‘it’s in there’, so that after the election we were able to work on it quickly,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“It was done through a private member’s Bill, which means it could be done much more quickly.
“If the government had tried to do it, I tell you what it would have taken two years to develop the legislation … and we would have had to deal with all this risk aversion and complexity.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said that once the Bill was introduced, the government was compelled to deal with it and moved to improve the legislation through amendments and working with stakeholders, including the police.
Ms Stephen-Smith argued that the Barr government had been given a mandate to pursue the reforms after a committee into youth mental health – made up of Labor, Greens and Liberal members – handed down a report in August 2020 with recommendations to decriminalise drugs.
“(There was) tri-partisan support for a recommendation to examine simple drug offence notices. So the decriminalisation … of a range of drugs,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“(That) gave us then the authority to say ‘oh, well, the Assembly in a tri-partisan way has supported this and as a government, we need to respond to it’.”
ACT opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley said the notion that the committee had recommended the kinds of reforms now legislated by the government was “incorrect” and said the Liberals had only supported the call for more investigation on the matter.
“This report called for an investigation,” Ms Castley said. “Certainly it didn’t give the go-ahead to introduce legislation.
“When the Bill came in, we put a dissenting report in through that committee process. It was all just so sneaky and … calculated.”
The report made 66 recommendations and did not specifically call on “decriminalisation”, but rather for the ACT government to consider “further criminal justice diversion for young drug users by investigating the appropriateness of a simple drug offence notice for some drugs”.
“After nearly 22 years in power, this ACT Labor government arrogantly thinks it can impose any measure without the need for proper public scrutiny or debate,” Ms Castley said.
“We saw the same arrogant attitude with the takeover of Calvary Hospital.”
The laws – which will come into effect from October – decriminalise the possession of 1.5g or less of amphetamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and magic mushrooms and 1g or less of heroin. The possession of 0.001g or less of LSD will also be decriminalised.
The ACT legislation states that if a police officer believes a person has “committed a simple drug offence”, they can issue the $100 fine or direction to attend an assessment and harm reduction session.
Ms Stephen-Smith said that the government intended to build an evidence base on the impact of the laws once they came into place, signalling the desire to expand them further.
“It’s really about … being able to point to that and say ‘hey the sky didn’t fall in, we can take the next step’,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “That’s where Labor is really strong, particularly compared to the Greens.
“We are pragmatic, we are a party of government … we cannot hold everything up in order to make it perfect. We have to give it a go, build an evidence base and we have to take the next step.”
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