David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (09:54): When you have been working as long as I have, you get a bit jaded, I suppose, and I did not imagine there would be too many surprises left in my career. Well, oh my God, you can colour me shook, because, dear members, I have recently learned that I am trending. That is right – I am blowing up on Facebook, popping on Instagram and even catching fire on TikTok. That is right, over half a million views on Facebook, 1700 on Instagram, 72,000-plus on TikTok and 1200 on YouTube. This is, I am reliably informed by certain young people, a canon event. The cause of my sudden online virality? It seems my speech in November bemoaning the government’s failure to heed its own party policy at the state ALP conference to legalise, tax and regulate cannabis has hit different with Gen X, Y and Z and boomers alike, because the government’s absurd refusal to reform cannabis law in this state does not make sense.
We are cutting vital services yet still spending millions of dollars locking up thousands for cannabis possession, not to mention handing billions of dollars to organised crime. It is nothing short of delulu.