Katy Gallagher slams Coalition’s attempt to override drug decriminalisation laws

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has backed the ACT’s right to decriminalise ice, heroin and cocaine, slamming Peter Dutton for his attempt to overturn the new laws.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has backed the ACT’s right to decriminalise ice, heroin and cocaine, slamming Peter Dutton for his attempt to overturn the new laws out of concern they will make Canberra a “boom market” for drug dealers and organised crime.

The Coalition on Thursday introduced a private member’s bill to the Senate seeking to use commonwealth powers to override ACT laws due to come into force on October 28, which will make Canberra the first city in the country to decriminalise illicit drugs.

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the changes could make the territory a hub for drug users and dealers “hoping to experience the ACT’s party lifestyle”.

“The suppliers of these hard drugs are organised crime figures and outlaw motorcycle gangs. They are the real beneficiaries of these laws,” Senator Cash said.

“It doesn’t affect Territory rights. It doesn’t amend the powers of the ACT Legislative Assembly. It says that a bad law that will harm Australians has no effect.”

The new ACT laws will allow police to issue “simple offence notices” to people in possession of less than 1.5g of cocaine, ice or MDMA and less than 1g of heroin, and issue either a $100 fine or direction to help-seeking services.

Mr Dutton, a former police officer, said he had witnessed first hand the harms of drug use and was concerned the ACT laws would encourage more people to try illicit substances.

“I’ve delivered death messages to parents whose kids have died of overdoses, I’ve been to countless domestic violence incidents where blokes are as high as a kite and they commit crimes they wouldn’t otherwise,” he told 2GB. But Senator Gallagher – a former ACT chief minister – said the territory had every right to make such laws.

“This is a matter for the ACT Assembly. The ACT Assembly is a mature parliament democratically elected by ACT voters,” she said.

“I have spent my career in public life supporting the rights of Canberrans to determine the laws, policies and programs under which they are governed.”

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr also slammed the Coalition’s attempt to intervene in the ACT, which he said was nothing more than posturing to appeal to the Liberal Party’s base.

The Coalition’s bill is due to fail in the Senate given opposition from Labor and the Greens.