Mr BONSON - 2004-08-19
Can the minister advise the House how the government drug house laws are benefiting the Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for his question, because this question and the answer I am about to give goes to the heart of this government’s fight against crime. We have, as a government, a direct mandate from the people of the Northern Territory to crack down on people who peddle illicit drugs in our community. We made it a very strong plank of our election commitment.
Members of this House would be aware of the three-point plan we put to the people of the Northern Territory in order to crack down on people who peddle drugs and misery in our community. This government, since we have been in office for three years, have put in place a range of laws to stop and punish the people who profit from the sale of illicit drugs.
Ms Carney: Only 14% of them go to gaol, according to this. That is a dreadful record. Absolutely appalling.
Mr HENDERSON: We will talk about the opposition’s record in a moment, Madam Speaker. These drug house laws were controversial. They were derided by the pro-drug lobby and members opposite …
Mr Dunham: You exchanged votes with the pro-drug lobby – you gave them preferences.
Mr HENDERSON: It has been two years …
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: It was derided by those members opposite - and they did absolutely nothing about an horrendous problem when they were in government.
It has been two years since these laws have been in operation, and let us look at the results. In this time, we have seen the seizure of over $380 000 worth of illicit drugs, including cannabis, amphetamines, cannabis plants and LSD. We have seen 45 arrests and 21 summonses issued by police arising from operations around these new drug laws - laws that were not in place when the CLP were in opposition. It was all too hard, or the previous government just turned a blind eye to the drug houses that were operating with impunity in the community.
Even more importantly, we have seen these drug houses driven out of business. Ninety-one first drug house notices have been issued across the Territory; 13 second notices and five third notices have been issued by police. This has seen many of those houses closed. The Foils at Moil was probably the most infamous of the drug houses. You could talk to any taxi driver in Darwin. If you wanted to know where you go to get some dope in Darwin, they told you to go to Foils at Moil, and it was a drive-through service operating with absolute impunity in Darwin. It was raised in this House in the lead-up to the last election. I remember the debate about it. It was even acknowledged by the then member for Jingili, who said there was a problem in his electorate but nothing could be done.
Well, we had the intestinal fortitude to introduce that legislation, and Foils at Moil and many other of those drug dens are now out of business. The previous government put its head in the sand. They said that the links between drugs and property crime were minuscule. I do not believe it is any coincidence that, since we introduced this legislation, we have seen property-related crime across the Territory drop by about 30% and 6500 fewer burglaries across the Northern Territory. Drug dealers hate these laws. The dealers in drugs hate these laws and we can see why.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for his question, because this question and the answer I am about to give goes to the heart of this government’s fight against crime. We have, as a government, a direct mandate from the people of the Northern Territory to crack down on people who peddle illicit drugs in our community. We made it a very strong plank of our election commitment.
Members of this House would be aware of the three-point plan we put to the people of the Northern Territory in order to crack down on people who peddle drugs and misery in our community. This government, since we have been in office for three years, have put in place a range of laws to stop and punish the people who profit from the sale of illicit drugs.
Ms Carney: Only 14% of them go to gaol, according to this. That is a dreadful record. Absolutely appalling.
Mr HENDERSON: We will talk about the opposition’s record in a moment, Madam Speaker. These drug house laws were controversial. They were derided by the pro-drug lobby and members opposite …
Mr Dunham: You exchanged votes with the pro-drug lobby – you gave them preferences.
Mr HENDERSON: It has been two years …
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: It was derided by those members opposite - and they did absolutely nothing about an horrendous problem when they were in government.
It has been two years since these laws have been in operation, and let us look at the results. In this time, we have seen the seizure of over $380 000 worth of illicit drugs, including cannabis, amphetamines, cannabis plants and LSD. We have seen 45 arrests and 21 summonses issued by police arising from operations around these new drug laws - laws that were not in place when the CLP were in opposition. It was all too hard, or the previous government just turned a blind eye to the drug houses that were operating with impunity in the community.
Even more importantly, we have seen these drug houses driven out of business. Ninety-one first drug house notices have been issued across the Territory; 13 second notices and five third notices have been issued by police. This has seen many of those houses closed. The Foils at Moil was probably the most infamous of the drug houses. You could talk to any taxi driver in Darwin. If you wanted to know where you go to get some dope in Darwin, they told you to go to Foils at Moil, and it was a drive-through service operating with absolute impunity in Darwin. It was raised in this House in the lead-up to the last election. I remember the debate about it. It was even acknowledged by the then member for Jingili, who said there was a problem in his electorate but nothing could be done.
Well, we had the intestinal fortitude to introduce that legislation, and Foils at Moil and many other of those drug dens are now out of business. The previous government put its head in the sand. They said that the links between drugs and property crime were minuscule. I do not believe it is any coincidence that, since we introduced this legislation, we have seen property-related crime across the Territory drop by about 30% and 6500 fewer burglaries across the Northern Territory. Drug dealers hate these laws. The dealers in drugs hate these laws and we can see why.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016