❓ Ms. Mettam questions the effectiveness of the government's meth action plan following a report indicating a rise in meth use. The Minister defends the government's actions, highlighting measures taken and comparing current statistics to the previous Liberal government's record.
AnsweredQoN 126Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
METHAMPHETAMINE —
USE
126. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Police:
I refer to Report 21: National
Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program , which was released overnight and
references a 40 per cent rise in meth on the streets of WA, at 23 per cent
above the national average. Will the minister admit that, firstly, Labor's methamphetamine action plan and
stop-and-search laws have failed to reduce the use of hard drugs on our
streets; secondly, the use of meth will continue to rise under WA Labor now
that it does not have the COVID border to hide behind; and, thirdly, WA Labor
has failed to deliver on its promise to keep Western Australians safe?
USE
126. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Police:
I refer to Report 21: National
Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program , which was released overnight and
references a 40 per cent rise in meth on the streets of WA, at 23 per cent
above the national average. Will the minister admit that, firstly, Labor's methamphetamine action plan and
stop-and-search laws have failed to reduce the use of hard drugs on our
streets; secondly, the use of meth will continue to rise under WA Labor now
that it does not have the COVID border to hide behind; and, thirdly, WA Labor
has failed to deliver on its promise to keep Western Australians safe?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for her question.
I will answer them all together. The bottom line is what the Premier indicated. Every single year under us, meth consumption
in Western Australia has been far lower than it was in the last year under
the Liberal government in 2016, when, I remind the member, we saw the blaring
front-page headlines ''Meth City''. It was Perth they were
talking about. We led the nation then. The Leader of the Opposition is wrong. Western
Australia is not leading the nation in meth consumption. In fact, I think we
are third or fourth behind a number of other
states with regard to meth. Having said that, meth is a significant threat to Western
Australia. It is the drug of choice in this state and it is the one that
does so much harm. That is why we have done so much to empower the police to disrupt the organised criminals who bring it
here. The Liberal government did not do that.
As the Premier indicated, we have
taken a range of measures to empower the police, including the anti-consorting legislation and the toughest anti-insignia
legislation in the country, and everyone has seen the disruptive nature of that
legislation for the bikies; they are the people. When we talk about organised
crime and the distribution of meth in the state, essentially, it is brought in
from overseas by people in triads, mafia, cartels and the like and then
distributed within Australia, particularly within Western Australia, by outlaw
motorcycle gangs. That was confirmed during the COVID pandemic because of the
hard borders, the reduction of trafficking into the state and the use of clever
intelligence that resulted in some significant disruption. It did show that
they are the people behind it. A lot of them
are in prison now. It will not go away while we have organised criminals and
those gangs. That is why we continue
to go after them. We introduced amendments to the Firearms Act a couple of
years ago that doubled the penalties for firearms theft and illegal use
and also created a thing called a firearms prohibition order, which is essentially for searching without a warrant just
about anywhere you want. The police have that; the gang crime squad can
do that. When those people are handed one of those things, life gets very
uncomfortable.
As the member has referred to, we
created legislation to establish 22 search areas around the state—every
international land, sea and air arrival point essentially and all the major
ones across the land borders—to enable the police, again without a warrant,
to conduct searches in prescribed areas. They are initiated and established at short notice with a senior officer based on
intelligence. The police have those powers. They will be using them. They have started using those search powers, but they are only in the early days.
They will use a range of those powers, and others, to ensure that they work to
disrupt and dismantle organised crime gangs and their ability to distribute
meth into the state.
It is not a simple thing and there
is no single silver bullet. Despite all that, we have done a range of measures
that the previous government never even contemplated. I find it a little bit
frustrating to be criticised in here for not having yet solved the problem that
members opposite looked at for eight and a half years and did nothing about.
I will answer them all together. The bottom line is what the Premier indicated. Every single year under us, meth consumption
in Western Australia has been far lower than it was in the last year under
the Liberal government in 2016, when, I remind the member, we saw the blaring
front-page headlines ''Meth City''. It was Perth they were
talking about. We led the nation then. The Leader of the Opposition is wrong. Western
Australia is not leading the nation in meth consumption. In fact, I think we
are third or fourth behind a number of other
states with regard to meth. Having said that, meth is a significant threat to Western
Australia. It is the drug of choice in this state and it is the one that
does so much harm. That is why we have done so much to empower the police to disrupt the organised criminals who bring it
here. The Liberal government did not do that.
As the Premier indicated, we have
taken a range of measures to empower the police, including the anti-consorting legislation and the toughest anti-insignia
legislation in the country, and everyone has seen the disruptive nature of that
legislation for the bikies; they are the people. When we talk about organised
crime and the distribution of meth in the state, essentially, it is brought in
from overseas by people in triads, mafia, cartels and the like and then
distributed within Australia, particularly within Western Australia, by outlaw
motorcycle gangs. That was confirmed during the COVID pandemic because of the
hard borders, the reduction of trafficking into the state and the use of clever
intelligence that resulted in some significant disruption. It did show that
they are the people behind it. A lot of them
are in prison now. It will not go away while we have organised criminals and
those gangs. That is why we continue
to go after them. We introduced amendments to the Firearms Act a couple of
years ago that doubled the penalties for firearms theft and illegal use
and also created a thing called a firearms prohibition order, which is essentially for searching without a warrant just
about anywhere you want. The police have that; the gang crime squad can
do that. When those people are handed one of those things, life gets very
uncomfortable.
As the member has referred to, we
created legislation to establish 22 search areas around the state—every
international land, sea and air arrival point essentially and all the major
ones across the land borders—to enable the police, again without a warrant,
to conduct searches in prescribed areas. They are initiated and established at short notice with a senior officer based on
intelligence. The police have those powers. They will be using them. They have started using those search powers, but they are only in the early days.
They will use a range of those powers, and others, to ensure that they work to
disrupt and dismantle organised crime gangs and their ability to distribute
meth into the state.
It is not a simple thing and there
is no single silver bullet. Despite all that, we have done a range of measures
that the previous government never even contemplated. I find it a little bit
frustrating to be criticised in here for not having yet solved the problem that
members opposite looked at for eight and a half years and did nothing about.
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