Little AndrewDRUG AND SUBSTANCE CHECKING LEGISLATION BILL (NO 2)Second ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I present a legislative statement on the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2).DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just a minute. I'm just checking with the Minister. Was that circulated before the deadline at 11? If it wasn't you can move it but you have to seek leave to—Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I signed it off first thing this morning and understood it had been lodged but if it hasn't been then I'll seek leave to present it.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No if that's your—it's just that it's not on my list so we weren't expecting it. So if you move it again I'll—Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I present—Matt Doocey: Point of order. Apologies to the Minister. Could we just clarify what we are seeking leave for? It would be helpful.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well at the moment nothing. It's just that clearly—Matt Doocey: You pointed out to the Minister he'll need to seek leave. I wasn't sure myself. It would be helpful for the other parties if you could clarify your instruction to the Minister.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah OK so when a Minister presents a legislative statement that has to be distributed by 11 a.m. each morning. I haven't got it on my list and I'm just asking if that was correct. Can I ask the Clerk to reconfirm that with me? Has that been properly received? OK we'll check. Because if it has been received then we don't need to seek leave. Otherwise we do.I can confirm that it was received and my sheet in front of me is incorrect.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Thank you Mr Speaker. In light of that I've just been advised that it was apparently lodged at 10.55 a.m.; I like to meet deadlines. I move that the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2) be now read a second time.DEPUTY SPEAKER: We'll do the legislative statement first.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Oh you want that. Sorry. From the top. I present a legislative statement on the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2).DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2) be now read a second time.This is a reasonably simple bill as part of the Government's policy to treat drug consumption primarily as a health issue. It is about making sure people can get access to good accurate and appropriate advice on drugs that they may be intending to or are about to consume so that they can make informed decisions and also for some an opportunity to get at least some interim advice on the risks they may be taking with the consumption of the substances in their possession.What the bill does is establish a licensing system for drug-checking service providers. We have an interim arrangement at the moment. This will set up a permanent arrangement under which the director-general can issue licences under certain conditions or once certain conditions are met. This means that those drug-checking service providers can operate with legal certainty and Parliament and the public can have certainty that their services are fit for purpose.I acknowledge the work of the Health Committee on the bill. I see they've made a number of recommendations for change and I welcome those. I support those recommendations. There's a number of elements that the committee has suggested could do with change. One of those is a matter that was intended to appear in regulations in the original draft bill but will now appear in the statute—will now appear in the bill itself—such as the provisions for suspending or cancelling a licence and appeal provisions. I think that is the appropriate place for those sorts of provisions to be. It'll provide greater clarity and certainly I think to those in this field about what is required and what they must do to maintain their licence. It will also now include requirements for licence holders and failure to meet these requirements will be a breach of their licence conditions and may result in the licence being cancelled.Some of these requirements include that harm-reduction advice is to be compulsory. So anybody who surrenders a substance to be tested by the drug-testing agency must get advice. That advice must be appropriate and accurate. So for example a drug-testing service in giving advice could not say that taking drugs is risk-free because it never is but they will tailor that advice to make it appropriate in the circumstances. If a person shows an indication of consuming alcohol at the same time as another substance the advice can be: do not use this substance and take alcohol. That is about making sure that people's experience is a safe one. It's ultimately about keeping people safe and giving people good reasonable and accurate advice. One of the requirements is that the advice is tailored to the person and for people for whom their drug consumption appears to be problematic it's an opportunity to engage in a conversation about that and ideally to refer them to appropriate services if the person is prepared to accept that their consumption is problematic.The bill now requires drug-checking services who are licensed to train their staff to have properly trained staff and also to make sure that any substances that they do retain are safely and securely stored pending destruction. And in handling all issues obviously the service is to ensure personal privacy is maintained.So I think the changes that the committee has proposed are good changes are sensible changes and they serve the interests of the bill very well. As I said before the purpose of this bill is to accept a reality of a chunk of our population who are drug users but who may be using substances the genuineness of or the validity of they just don't know. This is an opportunity for them to check that.I see from the reporting back to the House that the National Party has a view that this condones drug use and I say it does not—it does not. The reality is as I said there is a group of people in our community a cohort and this will apply to any generation that happens at any time in the life of this great country of ours—there will be people who consume substances legal or illegal and sometimes they will have substances they really don't know what the substance actually is. They are the people who we do want to avail themselves of this service so that they do know what they are consuming and have the opportunity to get advice about the safe or otherwise consumption of it. That's about de-risking that practice of some people.So to the extent that the National Party argues in their minority view that it condones drug use and that there is no evidence that measures of this nature that the bill is setting up support harm reduction I simply invite the National Party to look at the evidence. The evaluation done by a Victoria University health professor on the practice of the drug-testing services last summer showed that a significant number of people who used those services changed their behaviour as a result; either didn't consume a substance moderated their consumption of the substance or didn't take undue risk. That kept those people safe. This is about accepting the reality of humanity that people do this. We wanted to keep them safe. This bill does that.I'm thankful for the work of the select committee. I look forward to the ongoing passage of the bill through the House. And on that note I commend the bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.