Turnbull says One Nation’s medicinal cannabis amnesty 'irresponsible'
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Version 0 of 1. Malcolm Turnbull has rejected One Nation’s proposed medicinal cannabis amnesty, saying the government does not have the power and an amnesty for dangerous illicit substances would be “irresponsible”. In an interview with ABC radio in Brisbane, the prime minister also reassured Australians that it was “unlikely” classified information had leaked as the result of Yahoo accounts of ministers being compromised in 2013. Immediately before the interview Steve Dickson, the former Queensland Liberal National party MP who defected to One Nation on Friday over the cannabis issue, told ABC that calling an amnesty would help Turnbull demonstrate he had “not lost touch”. Queensland has passed a bill legalising the use of medicinal suppliers but there are no licensed suppliers yet in Australia, raising fears that people could be prosecuted for using the drug for pain relief. “We don’t have the power to issue a general amnesty,” Turnbull said. He warned the health department was concerned people were “treating themselves with a powerful medicine sourced from elicit market” because there were “no controls on the safety and quality of medicines bought this way”. Turnbull cited the example of two women in New South Wales hospitalised because the strength of cannabis used in their treatment was “much higher than expected”. “It would be irresponsible to be giving a free-ranging amnesty over conduct that is against the law ... And may well involve using substances that are very very dangerous indeed.” He said the government had set up a medicinal cannabis licensing scheme to allow for cultivation of safe products but conceded none were yet licensed in Australia. Turnbull said medicinal cannabis could be imported under a Therapeutic Goods Administration scheme, if it was prescribed by a doctor. Addressing Pauline Hanson’s claim she was invited to Donald Trump’s inauguration and the fact he was not, the prime minister said his understanding was it was not the practice to invite foreign leaders such as himself and he “wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep” if a One Nation parliamentarian attended. Turnbull appeared uncertain of what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had already confirmed, that Australia’s ambassador, Joe Hockey, would attend. Turnbull said Hockey would attend if other diplomats did. Turnbull said Hockey had secured excellent access to the incoming Trump administration and he had personally spoken to Trump about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He attacked Labor for refusing to pledge support for a parliamentary motion in favour of the TPP. On Tuesday ABC reported that thousands of Australian government officials, including high-profile politicians and senior defence officials, were among the one billion victims of the Yahoo data breach in 2013. Among those reportedly affected were the social services minister, Christian Porter, the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, the Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, the opposition health spokeswoman, Catherine King, and the Liberal senator Cory Bernardi. Turnbull said he had not been compromised in the Yahoo attack. He offered IT advice from his time as chairman of OzEmail including setting up two-factor identification and setting better passwords than “password”, “internet” or “computer”. Turnbull said he would get a report from his cybersecurity adviser, Alastair MacGibbon, about the Yahoo leak but noted since it occurred in 2013 it may have been before the Coalition was elected to government. “It begs the question as to what was in those accounts and clearly, in terms of classified government information, can only be transmitted and used on approved government communications systems.” Turnbull concluded it would be “very unlikely” there were security issues for the named politicians. On Tuesday MacGibbon told ABC TV there hadn’t been any indication that sensitive government information was on any of the politicians’ or officials’ accounts. “It’s just that they used a government email address as a recovery email address, if they lost their password, for example,” he said. “There is a chance that criminals would blackmail people. I would say if they wanted to do it, they would have done it already.” MacGibbon said politicians were supposed to keep personal and public emails separate, so it was good that they had separate accounts. Turnbull offered support for the Liberal MP Andrew Laming, but said his daughter, Daisy, who is a teacher, had expressed concern about his comments on the supposedly generous working hours of Queensland teachers. “She had a very strong reaction, so I think Andrew will have received some very emphatic feedback from teachers in his electorate and elsewhere,” he said. Turnbull said teachers worked very hard and were “at the front line of our future”. |