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7 minutes ago
17.33 EST
Today marks the second anniversary of the government’s adoption of the Kate Jenkins Set the Standards report.
There is still much work to be done, and the presiding officers, Milton Dick and Sue Lines, have released a joint statement, which you can find here.
25 minutes ago
17.16 EST
Benita Kolovos
The “progressive bloc” in Victorian parliament’s upper house – made up of the Animal Justice Party, the Greens and Legalise Cannabis Party - are making another push for pill testing today.
Last year, they introduced a joint bill to parliament – the first by multiple political parties – to introduce a pill testing scheme. But they say the issue has become more urgent after several overdoses at music festivals over the summer.
Georgie Purcell, from the Animal Justice Party, says:
As some of the youngest members of parliament, we know that people take drugs that’s the reality and pill testing doesn’t encourage the use of drugs. It simply makes it safer. For those who do we’ve obviously seen some really, really tragic circumstances, the summer during festival season and that’s why we’re calling on the government to listen.
Greens MP Aiv Puglielli said:
We know that this should be above party politics … we have to push as much as we can, lives are at risk. The best time to have introduced this policy was 20 years ago, but the second best time is now. We need this in place before the next summer.
33 minutes ago
17.08 EST
Benita Kolovos
Victoria police to gain new powers to search for firearms
Further to the earlier report on the weapon changes in Victoria the police minister, Anthony Carbines, is introducing today, Carbines is also amending existing laws to make it easier for police to serve a firearm prohibition order (FPO) on a person.
An FPO allows police to stop and search a person of interest at any time to see if they have a firearm on them.
He said while the scheme has seen Victoria police issue more than 2,000 FPOs, they currently can only be served in person, which is difficult when people are actively avoiding police:
“If police believe you’re in a home or you’re in a vehicle and stopped, you can be served and you can’t avoid that service. We’ve had people in immigration detention, we’ve had people in custody, who have refused the service of firearm prohibition.
Carbines said only people of “ill repute” were subject to FPOs – no person doing the right thing will be stopped and searched under the changes. He said:
“You have to meet a pretty significant threshold to be the subject to a firearm prohibition order … Clearly a character of pretty ill repute.
Updated at 17.16 EST
37 minutes ago
2024-02-06 17:26:49
Original from www.theguardian.com
