Drug Driving

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:18): A supplementary arising from the original answer: how many of the road fatalities were identified as having opioids in their system?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:18): I will have to take that question on notice. The specific information I sought, quickly, was in respect of THC. I am happy to seek the same statistics, where they are available, with regard to opioids.

The one point I would make, though, in pursuing these statistics—and when I get them I am very keen to share them with honourable members—is to remember that, one statistic, one death that occurs on our roads, is one too many. In the instances that I have referred to here—16, 17, 18, 30, 40, 100—these are all real people's lives. Whatever the number is, I don't think it would be a major variable in the consideration on what is appropriate to do in this bill.

Again, I just want to reiterate that the objective of the bill is to enhance road safety. All the evidence, empirical and anecdotal, says that drug driving on our roads is increasing. We need to do the right thing to decrease it, and our bill seeks to achieve that. Having the bill start being used as a vehicle to contemplate the complexities that exist around THC and medicinal cannabis, I think, runs the risk of subverting the original objective of seeking to reform this bill, which is to enhance and improve road safety and reduce risk for those people on our roads who simply want to get from A to B without the risk of being run into by a drug driver.