Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (17:47): Surprisingly, I also rise to make a brief contribution on the government’s response to the inquiry into the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Regulation of Personal Adult Use of Cannabis) Bill 2023. I would like to echo the sentiments of my colleague Ms Payne. The government’s refusal to heed the advice of experts and the committee is craven and misguided. Despite support for decriminalisation being at an all-time high, the government has failed to listen to the Victorian community. Despite data from the ACT showing that the decriminalisation of cannabis has led to no negligible adverse outcomes, the government has chosen to disregard this evidence. Despite the recommendations of the inquiry receiving unanimous support from the government’s own members, the government has refused to support them.

On that note, I want to express my compliments to Mr Galea and to Mr Batchelor, who came to this inquiry with an open mind and a healthy scepticism, and through conversation and listening to the expert witnesses we came to a consensus on how to move forward. I want to thank them for that. Why has the government chosen to drop these good members down the elevator shaft? Well, to put it simply –

Ryan Batchelor: On a point of order, President, I just struggle with Mr Ettershank’s reflections on Mr Galea and me in this contribution and what the consequences of the government’s response mean. I am just a little troubled by the way he has been using his interpretation of matters to reflect on us.

The PRESIDENT: I am not too sure if it has been something that is offensive. I have listened. I will call Mr Ettershank to continue, and I will continue to listen intently.

David ETTERSHANK: I apologise for my excessive language causing any distress to the good members.

We ask ourselves: why has the government walked away from this compelling case for change? We have been told quite simply and directly by government representatives that next year’s election will be a law and order election. The government is attempting to position itself as the toughest on crime, and that is a stupid notion that they can never win in that sort of tit-for-tat battle or posturing with the opposition over who is harder on crime. They are conflating the sort of violent crime that Victorians are rightly concerned about – the carjacking and the home invasions that we are witnessing across the state – with the victimless offence of consuming some weed. Apart from being ridiculous, it is disingenuous and, frankly, immoral. Victorians are not fools, and as we have mentioned previously, 80 per cent of them support decriminalising cannabis possession. As the esteemed former supervising magistrate of the Drug Court the Honourable Tony Parsons stated recently, cannabis law reform is the holy trinity of good policy. It is the right thing to do, it is backed by evidence and it enjoys broad community support.

This government’s gutlessness has created an outrage amongst our members that is palpable. We simply say: stop arresting 4000 members of our community every year. These are victimless crimes, and this is inane policing. And to us, with a government that knows that these laws adversely impact upon First Nations communities, where they are eight times as likely to get picked up for cannabis possession, and other marginalised communities – the hypocrisy of wrapping themselves in a cloth of self-esteem and hubris over the moves on treaty, which are fantastic, whilst at the same time turning their back on a simple reform that directly affects the communities that we are targeting through treaty belies belief. We just express our deep, deep disappointment in the government, and no doubt this is something that will play out over time.