Drug diversion programs a 'smart on crime' approach

02/06/2022

Policy and Public Affairs

Bar Association President Gaby Bashir SC was a guest this morning on ABC Radio's Breakfast program, with James O'Loghlin. The interview was in response to articles in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph regarding Attorney General Mark Speakman's proposal for a pre-court drug diversion pilot program.

"The Bar Association has supported all of the Ice Inquiry recommendations, and the preliminary position of the Ice inquiry was that there should be decriminalisation with a fall back position of depenalisation ... [Depenalisation] was a position that former Police Commissioner Scipione and former Police Commissioner Fuller were supportive of, and no one could accuse them of being soft on crimes", Ms Bashir said.

She told listeners that harm minimisation frees up public money that police spend on going to court, which could be spent on prosecutions for domestic violence offences, sexual assaults, while also taking a harm minimisation approach to drugs.

"It's actually a very smart on crime approach", she concluded.