Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:34): I rise to speak on the Victorian government’s tabled response to the Inquiry into the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Regulation of Personal Adult Use of Cannabis) Bill 2023. This is the response of a weak and cowardly government. It is an outright rejection of decriminalising cannabis. This government has failed to fully support any of the inquiry’s recommendations. They are so fearful of a tough-on-crime election that they think this response makes them look strong. This fear is entirely misdirected. Victorians are not scared of a cannabis consumer with the munchies – they are afraid someone is going to break into their house in the middle of the night with a weapon. The government’s response indicates that they are considered equally as important crimes. They are so deeply out of touch, and they should be ashamed. The time for change is now, but instead they have chosen a race to the bottom with an opposition that is already dead in the water while over 80 per cent of the public and the overwhelming majority of stakeholders are in support of decriminalisation.

We have worked in good faith with this government for the last three years. When we introduced this bill in 2023, the government committed to ongoing discussions based on the evidence. We bent over backwards to get that evidence to you. We initiated a bill inquiry, a chance for a parliamentary committee to seek submissions from the public, hear from the experts and even travel to the ACT to hear the experiences of decriminalisation. All of this work cumulated into the committee’s final report, which was supported by Labor MPs. The findings of this report were overwhelmingly in favour of decriminalising cannabis. When went to the ACT we spoke to the community, we spoke to the police, and we spoke to fellow politicians and to academics, who all agreed that decriminalisation has been a wholly positive experience. They did not see an increased use in health presentations. Despite increased testing, rates of drug driving actually went down. In light of these success stories and the support of the vast majority of stakeholders, recommendation 1 of the report was that the Victorian government draw on the experience of the ACT in successfully decriminalising the cultivation and possession of small quantities of cannabis for personal use with its associated health, social and legal benefits and aim to consider adopting an approach in line with that proposed by the bill along with any amendments recommended in this report. The government’s response to this recommendation was a simple ‘do not support’. After all of this work and all of this evidence, you are telling me that you do not even support the principle of decriminalising cannabis.

In the government’s response they say that they will reduce harm by evidence-based action. They say they believe the ACT’s positive experience and they claim that they will monitor the issue. Their hypocrisy is glaring. This kind of inaction is inexcusable. You are lacking courage. At a time when many Victorians are worried about community safety, this government is happy to spend millions upon millions of dollars on policing and the criminal justice system to arrest and prosecute people for possessing small quantities of cannabis. Crime Statistics Agency data shows that in Victoria an average of almost 8000 people a year come into contact with the criminal justice system for possessing cannabis. Of those almost 4000 are arrested, a disturbing number of which are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. At the end of the day, it is not just us I feel sorry for, it is them. Shame on this weak and cowardly government.