This week Chris Minns has broken his promise to the people of New South Wales. He has abandoned his commitment to the drug law reform agenda he spruiked pre-election.
In Tuesday's budget, there was no funding for the long-promised Drug Summit. There was no funding to support the harm reduction strategies our communities so desperately need.
It has now been 25 years since the last Drug Summit occurred, and each day without action puts our communities further at risk of harm.
Comments from Lydia Shelly, President, NSW Council for Civil Liberties
“Prior to the election Drug Law Reform was one of Labor’s ‘top priorities’. For the last two elections Labor has promised to hold a drug summit to bring ‘all the policy experts together’. With the Government’s radio silence on this issue, the people of NSW continue to suffer from an outdated, harmful approach to drugs.
We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis where vulnerable people find themselves with very limited options to seek treatment and support for problematic drug use. We know that this group faces needless, expensive and harmful interactions with the criminal justice system - all of which can be disastrous for them, their families and our community.
People who face drug dependency should be able to access treatment and support services, not gaol. We know from the current research at UNSW’s Policy Modelling Program that Australian governments spend more on law enforcement in illicit drug policy than treatment, prevention and harm reduction combined, with nearly 65% of funds spent on law enforcement, and less than 2% on harm reduction.
Premier Minns has allowed politics and shock jocks to completely muddy the waters. The criminal law in NSW is particularly ill-suited to dealing with people who are involved in drug use. It's a blunt instrument that doesn't address the underlying issues driving drug use. It fails time and time and time again. We can and must do better.
We call on Premier Chris Minns and members of the NSW Labor Parliamentary team to honour their election commitment and promise to the people of NSW and announce the date for a 5-day NSW Drug Summit."
