Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

NARCOTIC DRUGS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL

The Narcotic Drugs Legislation Amendment Bill contains amendments to protect the integrity of the medicinal cannabis scheme. Cannabis is a crop of significant interest to criminal elements and preventing infiltration of organised crime into the legitimate medicinal cannabis industry must be a priority for the Commonwealth.

As members will well remember, the Narcotic Drugs Act was amended earlier this year to create a regime to allow for the first time the cultivation of cannabis in Australia for the purposes of providing access by Australians to medicinal cannabis. As I said at the time, it is important that we have an effective national licensing system to enable a sustainable supply of safe medicinal cannabis product to Australian patients in the future.

An important element of such a system is ensuring that only those who are 'fit and proper' can be granted a licence. The Narcotic Drugs Legislation Amendment Bill contains additional amendments to the Narcotic Drugs Act to protect sensitive law enforcement information used in making licensing decisions so that infiltration by criminal elements into the medicinal cannabis scheme can be prevented.

It is critical to ensure that participants in the medicinal cannabis scheme are of good character and repute. This is an important part of the anti-diversion controls for the scheme and allows the Commonwealth to comply with our obligations under the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961.

The Commonwealth is working with law enforcement agencies from all jurisdictions to put in place arrangements for the sharing of information around the suitability of licence applicants. The Commonwealth accepts that there are limitations to what types of information can be shared through such arrangements, but remains committed to protecting the integrity of the scheme.

The primary purpose of the Narcotic Drugs Legislation Amendment Bill is to put in place protection for information provided by law enforcement agencies used in decision making under the Act. These protections prevent the disclosure of 'sensitive law enforcement information', the improper release of which could have the effect of disrupting criminal investigations, revealing law enforcement intelligence gathering and investigative techniques or exposing the lives of people involved in criminal investigations to risk. Leaks of this type of information can have serious implications for the effectiveness of our law enforcement agencies and so it is in the public interest to prevent this from occurring.

The provisions in the Bill prevent the release of sensitive law enforcement information to the applicant, their lawyers and to the public at large when decisions are being made on whether to grant or revoke licences. The Bill also carries protections against release of this information during related Tribunal and court proceedings. The Bill creates offences with harsh penalties for revealing sensitive law enforcement information, except within some very narrow confines including, for instance, where it is necessary to allow its use for the proper administration of the Narcotic Drugs Act licensing provisions.

The Bill also includes provisions to allow the Secretary to refuse to grant a licence where the applicant has provided false or misleading information; to provide for the making of standards and guidelines to support the detailed elements of the scheme; to allow for the revocation of licences and permits where applicable standards are not met, and to allow for the supply of cannabis seeds grown in the course of medicinal cannabis research to be supplied to other cultivator licence holders for further propagation purposes.

In February this year, this Parliament supported the introduction of the legislation to enable the legal cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes, in order to supply Australian patients and to comply with our international obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. These amendments are necessary so that licences are only issued to persons who will work to meet these objectives. The risk of criminal elements diverting precious medicine to illicit uses is too great – this would be detrimental to the patients who would benefit from the availability of medicinal cannabis and would mean that the Government sanctioned system would be creating another public health risk.

Without this Bill, law enforcement agencies around the country will be reluctant to engage with the Commonwealth in providing the necessary information to manage these risks. These agencies understand and support the need for this cultivation scheme; but they rightly can only participate fully, if doing so will not compromise their own activities.

The cannabis cultivation and production licensing scheme commenced on 30 October 2016. It was intended that these amendments commence at the same time to ensure that scheme endorsed by the Parliament in February can operate effectively. A slight delay in the commencement of these amendments should not adversely affect the operation of the framework. However, any prolonged delay could adversely affect the protection of any sensitive information held or obtained by the Secretary of the Department of Health, or law enforcement agencies may not be willing to provide such information.

NARCOTIC DRUGS (LICENCE CHARGES) BILL 2016

There is no existing medicinal cannabis industry as cannabis is currently an illegal narcotic drug. Allowing for the creation and existence of a legitimate industry provides a benefit to that industry by opening a new market for commercial cultivation, manufacture and sale of medicinal cannabis products.

It is appropriate to seek to recover the direct costs that government incurs in regulating the medicinal cannabis industry through both direct fee recovery and through the imposition of levies.

Direct fee recovery for services specific to a holder of a licence for cultivation, production or manufacture will be implemented by way of regulations made under the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967. The imposition of charges, typically on an annual basis, to capture the indirect costs associated with regulating this industry do, however, require separate legislation, thus the Narcotic Drugs (Licence Charges) Bill.

Charges (or levies) under this Bill include those where costs cannot otherwise reasonably be assigned directly to a particular licence holder. For example, the annual charges will fund risk based inspections across industry. While direct fees will be applied for standard and regular inspections of cannabis cultivation and production facilities (such as those required to provide an initial licence), risk based inspections are typically unannounced and will vary in frequency. They are designed to target licence holders where there are concerns over their compliance with licence conditions, regulations or the legislation.

Through this, all licensees participating in the new cannabis cultivation industry will benefit, as the Department of Health is able to ensure that none gain an advantage that might otherwise eventuate if a company were about to breach the strict conditions placed on its licence; conditions designed to ensure that Australia prevents the diversion of cannabis to illicit purposes and fulfils its obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961.

This Bill establishes the legal authority to develop regulations that will contain the actual proposed charges. The scheme for the cultivation and production of cannabis for medicinal purposes commenced on 30 October 2016 – it is important that the Government is able to communicate on the full regulatory costs of this scheme as soon as possible in order to allow potential applicants to plan their businesses and complete their applications.

Debate adjourned.