Urgency

I move, That urgency be accorded the introduction and passing of the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill. The Government has determined, after careful consideration, that this bill be progressed through all stages under urgency to address an immediate public health concern. This piece of legislation will immediately remove all interim approved psychoactive products from the market.

It is not so long ago that we passed the Psychoactive Substances Bill. It passed through the House with 119 votes supporting it, and I think the general hope from MPs was that this scourge on our society would be better contained if we were to have the legislation that was proposed. Things move on, and I think it is a tribute to the whole Parliament that in the last few days there has been a considerable amount of work and effort from all sides of the House to get a bill to the House today that can be once again broadly supported.

I think the work that the Hon Tony Ryall has done on behalf of Peter Dunne in the last couple of days has got us to a point where we can be confident that once this bill is passed we are as sure as we can be about removing all of this horrible product from the market. I am sure that there will be opportunities in the future for the House to continue considering this, because there will always be people who want to put these sorts of substances in the road of those who believe they need them as part of their life. With those few comments I move the motion.