About Western Victoria and your vote

http://www.dlpforwestvic.org/

About the Democratic Labor Party

Peter Kavanagh talks about the Democratic Labor Party's history and values.





http://www.dlpforwestvic.org/

Peter Kavanagh and the DLP: now on YouTube

http://www.dlpforwestvic.org/



Introductory video.

MEDIA RELEASE: Compulsory detox and rehab are the answer, says DLP candidate

Compulsory detoxification and rehabilitation, along the lines of the model adopted in Sweden, is the answer to Victoria's burgeoning youth drug problem, says Peter Kavanagh, DLP candidate in the 2006 State Elections.

"We need strategies that are both compassionate and effective. Drug usage should remain illegal. Users, who are not trafficking, however, should be sentenced, not to jail, but to treatment. Can we do better for addicts than helping or even forcing them to get effective treatment?"

"One of the biggest problems for families and for young people with addictions to methamphetamines ("Ice"), heroin or other drugs, is that they don't have the resources and the knowledge to manage the detoxification and rehabilitation process. The existing law also leaves families legally powerless", Peter Kavanagh said.

"Some institutions, most notably those run by the Salvation Army, are doing good work but there are presently bureaucratic obstacles to treatment and insufficient resources. It will be expensive to establish the infrastructure needed to adequately support detox and rehab services but this is what we need to do," Mr Kavanagh said.

"In Sweden, police are empowered to take urine or blood samples from those suspected of drug problems. Police and parents are able to request Court orders mandating detoxification and rehabilitation. With other measures, the result is that now around 3 percent of teenagers use illicit drugs per year. The equivalent Australian figure is 28 percent. Compulsory detoxification and rehabilitation in Sweden appears to have been very successful. We should learn from what they've achieved and at least try to develop our own version of this response."

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See also Dramatic changes to drugs strategy needed, below, for more detailed proposals.

Dramatic changes to drugs strategy needed

Our ineffective drug policies must be changed. Australia desperately needs a strategy that works. Sweden has shown that there are measures which can be taken, even in a liberal democracy, which are effective in dramatically reducing drug consumption and associated problems including violence and other crime. One element of this strategy is to empower Courts to require teenagers with developing drug problems to undergo detoxification and then rehabilitation. In Australia, decades of an inconsistent, half-hearted 'harm minimisation' approach to drugs has resulted in disaster for many young Australians and their families and a huge economic and social burden on our community.

Consumption of many drugs is increasing. We are witnessing the beginning of a scourge of crystal methylamphetamine hydrochloride, aka "ice".(1) The potential harm of this drug alone is truly frightening. Cannabis is misunderstood and is being consumed by ever younger people and, although the public perception is still in the context of the 1960s, the drug itself, through genetic engineering, is now around thirty times stronger than it was forty years ago. Its increasing use is extremely harmful to both mental and physical health.

Australian governments and law enforcement authorities take a relatively soft approach - Australians do not have to go far to see drugs being sold openly in the streets. At the same time Australian youth are officially discouraged from using drugs but given 'harm minimisation' strategies if they decide to ignore this advice.

Sweden has taken a very different approach and its strategy is working. Sweden has now cut drug usage by teenagers to three percent a year. (3) The figure in Australia is 27.7 %. (3) The Swedish strategy is comprehensive but at its centre is the introduction of compulsory detoxification and rehabilitation programmes for drug users.

An effective strategy will not be cheap, it demands funding the establishment of detoxification and rehabilitation centres on a large scale. The alternative however, clinging to failed strategies, will result in much greater social, as well as economic, cost in the long run.

If elected to the seat of Western Victoria, I will propose and work towards implementing the following initiatives:

1. Set the international best practice target of no more than 3% of teenagers having used an illicit drug in the previous 12 months.

2. Make teenagers the key focus to reduce the number of new users (studies show that those who do not use illegal drugs by the time they are twenty are unlikely to ever do so).

3. Ensure that information to teenagers is truthful, setting out the real dangers of illicit drug use.

4. Establish specialist detoxification and rehabilitation programs .

5. Empower Courts to direct teenage illicit drug users into detoxification and rehabilitation programs. This would be discretionary, on the recommendation of police, medical personnel, such as ambulance officers or parents.

6. Surveys and studies of teenage drug use to be carried out annually and reported to every Parliament in Australia.

7. Teenage drug use trends and strategies for reduction to the 3% target must be included in the annual report to our Parliaments.

8. Make the seizure of drug dealers' assets easier and simpler. The onus should not be on the Crown to prove that assets came from drug dealing, in order to confiscate them. The onus should be on drug dealers to show that their assets were not the result of drug dealing to avoid confiscation.

9. Vastly increase funding for and number of drug treatment places for voluntary patients.

10. Study the effectiveness of various rehabilitation methods and facilities and continue to fund only those that are effective.

by Peter Kavanagh
DLP Candidate for Western Victoria

Notes:

(1) Australian Crime Commission, Illicit Drug Report, 2004 - 05, p.9.

(2) See, David Perrin, Executive Chief Officer of Drug Council of Australia in News Weekly, 22 October 2005.

(3) Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey: Detailed Findings, p. 36.

MEDIA RELEASE: ALP dodging late term abortion debate

The Victorian ALP is preparing to reverse the four decades old restrictions on abortion by permitting abortion of a pregnancy at any time and for any reason provided it is performed by a medical practitioner. The changes, proposed in 2005 by the Victorian ALP, will permit abortions up to very late stages of pregnancy.

Fearing a voter backlash, the Premier Mr Steve Bracks has made a pact with members of his own party, giving "iron clad assurances" that the ALP's policy will be implemented, while he tells the media and public that he "has not made up his mind" or that he has no intention of introducing these laws "in 2006".

Mr Peter Kavanagh, Upper House candidate for Western Victoria in the coming State elections, said “The letter of Victoria's current abortion law allows abortion only in cases of threat to the life or health of the mother (the Menhennitt ruling of 1969). The community retains strong reservations about late term abortions. If re-elected, the Victorian government will abolish the Menhennitt restrictions and allow abortion at any stage for any reason.”

In 2005 the Victorian ALP voted to remove all remaining, if nominal, protections for the unborn in Victoria. The existing ALP platform states: "Labor will amend section 65 of the Crimes Act to provide that no abortion be criminal when performed by a legally qualified medical practitioner at the request of the woman concerned". In May this year the ALP state conference voted overwhelmingly and explicitly against proposed amendments to retain any restrictions on late term abortions and even on 'partial birth abortions'.

“Partial birth abortion, actually a form of infanticide, is usually performed late in the second trimester or later. It involves turning a baby around inside the womb and, when it is born, except for the head, killing it, most often by inserting scissors into the brain. If the head were to be born first, the rest of the baby would emerge quickly, not giving enough time to kill it before birth is complete. There is evidence that this procedure is excruciatingly painful to the baby,” Mr Kavanagh said.

“In spite of constitutional restrictions on anti-abortion laws in the US, partial birth abortion was made illegal throughout the US in 2003 at any stage. The ALP's policy will allow partial birth abortions, even up to the time of natural birth,” Mr Kavanagh said.

“I know that there are lots of different views about this, but I think Victorians would want to see candidates questioned about this issue before they were elected. I don’t believe we’ve reached a stage in the debate where people no longer care that healthy, late term pregnancies could be aborted in what I think most people would call infanticide,” Mr Kavanagh said.

FOR COMMENT CONTACT PETER KAVANAGH ON TELEPHONE m. 0413 847 413

Campaign trail, March 2006

Did a tour of the western parts of the electorate. Western Victoria is certainly a beautiful part of the world with very attractive rural cities and towns. The Grampians and coast, including the Great Ocean Road are justifiably famous but it seems that virtually every area has attractions and demonstrate the prosperity that comes from hard work. Unfortunately the effects of a long drought are evident everywhere.

The people of Victoria's country towns were very warm and friendly to me. The people of Melbourne have a great reputation for freindliness towards visitors; but really this the experience most people have travelling throughout Victoria.

Dropped into twelve or so local newspaper offices on the way. I was surprised at the level of interest of the journalists. I was greeted very warmly, photographed and interviewed in Colac, Camperdown, Portland and Horsham. In other towns including Warrnambool, Hamilton, Ararat and Stawell, journalists expressed interest. Some said that they had already run stories but showed an interest in doing more as the campaign develops.

Not being a local was a common theme in interviews and discussions. Most people do not realise yet that the new Upper House electorates are vast. The seat of Western Victoria for example stretches from the South Australian border to include parts of outer Melbourne!

Peter Kavanagh

3AW talkback

Got onto 3AW as a caller to talk back radio. Began slowly but did much better as the panellists began to attack me and the DLP on extremely spurious grounds. As usual, their arguments were mostly in the form of ridicule and manifestations of prejudices rather than anything reasoned. One of the panellists disagreed with me that the DLP had not had a very fair go from the Australian media. When I asked if he had ever interviewed anyone in his career as a journalist he acknowledged that he had not and became noticeably less hostile. Was on for a total of perhaps ten minutes. Managed to get the name of the website out over the air. The panellists suggested that the DLP had never achieved anything! When I countered that the DLP as one example, was responsible for introducing equity into educational funding they tried to disagree. I retorted very firmly that it was a matter of historical fact that it was the DLP which had achieved ‘State Aid’ and the commentators acquiesced. At the conclusion thee panellists asked me to spell my name and commented, "Peter Kavanagh …well remember that name folks, you might be hearing it again in the future".

Peter Kavanagh

ABC Western Victoria

Peter Kavanagh says he believes in affordable home ownership, dam building and lowering the abortion rate, and these viewpoints can be articulated from any location.

ABC Western Victoria local news story 19 December 2005

MEDIA RELEASE: DLP chooses candidate for Western Victoria in 2006

A barrister-turned-secondary-school-teacher will be the Democratic Labor Party's candidate in Western Victoria for the state elections in 2006.

John Mulholland, Secretary of the DLP, said he believed the party had a good chance of winning at least one of the Upper House seats in the Victorian Parliament in the 2006 elections.

"Peter Kavanagh has been preselected as the candidate for Western Victoria in the 2006 state elections. Peter is the DLP's spokesperson on rural and regional affairs. He's a tremendous candidate and I think he has a very good chance of winning a seat in the Upper House in 2006," Mr Mulholland said.

The Upper House electorate of Western Victoria stretches from the outer Melbourne suburbs of Melton and parts of Werribee and Lara to the South Australian border. It includes the cities and towns of the Bellarine Peninsula, Geelong, Ballarat, Warrnambool, Portland, Colac, Horsham, Hamilton, Ararat, Avoca and Port Fairy.

"If you live in this part of Victoria you will have the opportunity to vote for Peter Kavanagh at next year’s state election," Mr Mulholland said.

"Upper House elections in Victoria will be conducted under a system of proportional representation for the first time. Candidates will be required to obtain one sixth of the vote--with no preferences--to win, or, with preferences, a candidate may win a seat with fewer, perhaps far fewer, votes."

"At the last Senate election the DLP outvoted the Australian Democrats and Family First--which won a seat on preferences. The DLP accomplished this with almost no money and no publicity."

"In the Upper House elections in 2006, winning a seat is a realistic possibility. Voters should remember that under our preferential system of voting they do not 'waste' their vote even if the candidate who gets your first preference does not win," Mr Mulholland said.

Peter Kavanagh is a secondary school teacher of languages, and has worked as a barrister and university lecturer.

FOR COMMENT CONTACT PETER KAVANAGH ON TELEPHONE m. 0413 847 413