STANHOPE FINALLY FOLLOWS HANSON ON DRUG DRIVING REFORM
After extensive delays and extraordinary resistance, Jon Stanhope has finally come around to agreeing with the Canberra Liberals’ push to introduce Drug Driving legislation in the ACT, Shadow Minister for Police Jeremy Hanson said today.
“Unfortunately, his ego won’t let him simply adopt the legislation I tabled in December last year and was agreed to in-principle by the Assembly on 5 May this year. Mr Stanhope has introduced his own RRDT legislation that mimics in every substantive way the bill already on the table, which has been agreed to in principle by the Assembly, and is based on the successful Victorian model that was endorsed by the Chief Police Officer earlier this week;
"We look more closely at Victoria; we think that is a model that is a little bit closer to what we would like to undertake in the ACT... We think that model's something we would like to design ours on." (CPO Roman Quaedvlieg, Budget Estimates 25/05/10)
Mr Stanhope has already acknowledged that my bill is based on the Victorian model when he stated in the Assembly on 5 May:
“Indeed, Mr Hanson can rightly claim that his model is based very much on the Victorian model”. (Jon Stanhope 5 May 2010 Hansard)
“Yet in December last year, Jon Stanhope indicated that Drug Driving was not a high priority and that the target groups for people driving under the influence of drugs ‘didn't appear to be such an issue for the ACT.’
“It has only been since there has been some momentum on this issue that the Chief Minister has finally responded. This isn’t about road safety for Jon Stanhope, it’s pure politics. There have been many opportunities for Mr Stanhope to engage with us and potentially suggest amendments. The community has seen no action from ACT Labor, only politically motivated opposition. Now we have this transparent copy-cat legislation that adds nothing to the discussion except to soothe a bruised ego.
“I call on Mr Stanhope to put aside the political ploys and actually work constructively with the other parties to have this provision for our police as soon as possible,” Jeremy Hanson said.
27 May 2010
