Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short, two-minute personal statement.

Leave granted.

Today I referred journalist Stephen Drill to the Press Council of Australia for investigation after he interviewed and posted a video of my son for the Herald Sun and other Murdoch media websites.

Unlike Mr Drill, my purpose in publicly disclosing controversial personal information about my son was to protect and persuade him to voluntarily accept ice detox and drug rehabilitation, because we do not have involuntary detox in this country. It was a risk; however, I felt I had no other option open to me because he was in grave danger. It worked. Early last week, my son contacted me and agreed to treatment, which I immediately organised with the help of a barrister and the staff of Teen Challenge, a national organisation that specialises in drug rehabilitation.

Everything was going smoothly until Mr Drill contacted my son and interviewed him last Friday. When Mr Drill conducted his interview, my son was vulnerable, drug affected, with diminished capacity and part of an official drug rehab program, having signed a Teen Challenge document two days earlier. As part of this Press Council investigation, I would like Mr Drill to explain why, after the interview, my son chose to leave home again and stop his rehabilitation process.

There may be other journalists who are tempted to copy Mr Drill and use the public interest excuse to chase my son for an interview. My message is simple: interview him by all means, but only after he is rehabilitated and back in control of his actions and thoughts. I will deal with the criticism that I am bad parent and a worse politician then. Because, if you chase him or any other ice addict at this stage of their rehabilitation, you are endangering their recovery and acting as a mouthpiece for a dangerous drug addiction that will do anything and say anything in order to be fed and nourished.

The bottom line is that my son would have been in rehab today if Mr Drill had not contacted him.