It gives me great pleasure to welcome to this sitting of the Legislative Assembly, Members and Legislative Council Members our esteemed and expert guests on drug education and drug prevention. The joint sitting represented an opportunity to develop a bipartisan approach to the drugs crisis and the experts made it clear they're fed up with party politics derailing strategy. First up, Professor David Pennington, chair of the Drug Policy Expert Committee. He recognised that the seriousness of the problem was not in dispute with the illicit drug trade flourishing and 75,000 dependent users of heroin in Australia. But still the issue raises strong feelings and these get in the way of rational decision making.
Some people have fervent views and are reluctant to examine the facts.
Until now we've not had consensus across Parliament as to the direction we should take. If common ground can be found there is a real opportunity to give leadership and to make an impact on the distress being experienced by our community. It was the view echoed by former Victorian Police Commissioner, Neil Comrie. We cannot procrastinate about this critical matter any longer. Nor can we allow political, moral, religious or other differences to continue to polarise our views and stifle real and meaningful action.