Rachel spoke on a motion by Legalise Cannabis Victoria. The motion was a response to the Labor government’s continued criminalisation of cannabis. Rachel urged the Victorian Labor government to reconsider its position on cannabis decriminalisation, noting previous endorsement by Victorian Labor Members.
Rachel recognised the evidence and overwhelming support for decriminalisation by stakeholders from the health, legal and AOD sector. She spoke on the consequences of criminalisation on First Nations and other marginalised communities, acknowledging criminalisation as a waste of police resources which should be effectively focused elsewhere.
Wednesday the 19th of November 2025,
Victorian Legislative Council
Rachel Payne (South-Eastern Metropolitan):
I rise to speak on motion 1151 in my colleague Mr Ettershank’s name. Earlier this month, alongside stakeholders from a wide range of sectors, including the health, legal and alcohol and other drug sectors, we wrote to the Premier to express our deep concerns about the Victorian government’s decision to oppose the decriminalisation of cannabis following the inquiry into personal adult use of cannabis. As organisations who witness the far-reaching and harmful consequences of these outdated laws on our most vulnerable Victorians, we called on the Premier to urgently reconsider this decision. We noted that every year in Victoria an average of 7805 people get caught up in the criminal justice system for possessing small quantities of cannabis, with 3812 of these people arrested, and I note Dr Heath’s contribution in making reference to those arrests. I will highlight that this data actually comes from the Crime Statistics Agency on individual arrest rates.
First Peoples and working class unfairly targeted
Victoria’s ongoing criminalisation of adult use was shown through the inquiry to unfairly target Aboriginal communities through discriminatory policing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 11 times more likely to be searched by Victoria Police and eight times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession, while non-Indigenous people are 50 per cent more likely to receive a caution for cannabis possession. These figures confirm what Aboriginal communities have long known – racial profiling and systemic bias persist in policing cannabis offences. Our motion highlights that the Allan government’s refusal to decriminalise cannabis perpetuates the criminalisation of marginalised communities, including First Nations and working-class people. Like the former public intoxication laws that led to the tragic and preventable death of Aunty Tanya Day, cannabis laws punish people instead of supporting them. They increase unnecessary contact with the criminal legal system, retraumatise people and entrench cycles of disadvantage. As with public intoxication and as was found by the inquiry, cannabis use is a public health issue, not a criminal one.
In this open letter, we noted that the cost of enforcing the criminalisation of cannabis Australia wide is estimated to be $1.7 billion each year. This includes $1.1 billion spent on imprisonment and $475 million on policing. The decision to continue criminalising cannabis wastes millions of dollars on valuable police, court and corrections resources on a victimless offence. It also ensures the illicit cannabis market in Victoria, which the Parliamentary Budget Office values at over $1 billion, will fund organised crime instead of the Victorian economy.
Evidence ignored
While we have not received a response to our letter yet – but by all accounts, it looks like Labor Party policy, as detailed in this motion – we should expect a response agreeing to decriminalise cannabis as soon as possible. Unfortunately, our expectations are grounded in reality. The reality is that this government has made the decision to outright reject the sensible approach of decriminalising cannabis in complete hypocrisy of its own party policy. But more than that, Victorian Labor members voted for cannabis to be legalised, taxed, owned and regulated by the state government. You would think that this would encourage the Allan Labor government to act, but they have not even considered decriminalisation despite over 80 per cent of Victorians supporting it, positive evidence from the ACT’s experience and overwhelming stakeholder support. This is the kind of consensus we rarely get to see on any political issue.
Like Labor Party members, we are calling on the government to reconsider its decision to rule out decriminalising cannabis. While we appreciate that not every policy supported at state conferences becomes the policy of the state government, I think it is fair to ask: what is stopping you? In the government’s response to the inquiry and our bill to decriminalise cannabis, they say they will reduce harm by evidence-based action, they say they believe the ACT’s positive experience and they claim that they will monitor the issue. Their hypocrisy is glaring. If it was at all true, they would have supported recommendation 1, to draw on the ACT’s successful experience and consider adopting an approach in line with what was proposed in our bill, but they did not. What a lack of courage. This kind of inaction is inexcusable. The Allan Labor government has surrendered to the idea of being tough on crime this election. As such, Victoria’s ‘serious consequences, early interventions’ plan sounds an awful lot like the Liberal Party’s policies. I am not sure there is anything more that you could do to be tough on crime except free up police resources by decriminalising cannabis.
A regulated market for funding systems
I want to focus on another part of our motion and an important part of the Labor Party’s resolution: that funds generated by a legalised cannabis industry would be used to fund recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System – the reform of the alcohol and other drug, or AOD, sector; the reform of WorkCover and WorkSafe; health-led housing; Indigenous health; and part of the state’s contribution to the national disability insurance scheme. While decriminalisation saves money in valuable police, court and prison resources on a victimless crime, a legal market could go one step further. Instead of funding arrests and incarcerations, we should be funding mental health services, housing and other vital social infrastructure. At a time when these services are crying out for support, it is shameful that this government’s inaction is stopping them receiving it.
When it was announced that the Allan Labor government would introduce pill testing following the joint advocacy of the Legalise Cannabis, Animal Justice and Greens parties, we had hope – a hope that this would be a government who listen to the evidence, a hope that they would have the courage to make the right decisions and a hope that harm minimisation would be a priority. I am disappointed, to say the least, but I am not entirely without hope. To echo the comments of my colleague in quoting His Honour Tony Parsons, cannabis law reform is the ‘holy trinity of good policy’. He said:
It’s the right thing to do. It’s backed by evidence. It enjoys broad community support.
While the time for change is now, I remain hopeful that even if it does not happen now, it is only a matter of time. Get on with it, heed your own policy and start by decriminalising the personal use and possession of cannabis in Victoria.
Related:
- LEGALISE IT
- Grow Victoria’s Hemp Industry
- Report released on inquiry into Personal Adult Use of Cannabis
- Motion to Refer the (Regulation of Personal Adult Use of Cannabis) Bill 2023 to a Bill Inquiry
- ‘Weak and cowardly’ government reject cannabis reform
- Millions wasted on cannabis arrests while state debt rises
- Cannabis reform: “It’s time”
