10 August 2017

Second Reading Speech in NSW Legislative Assembly

Ms TAMARA SMITH ( Ballina ) : The Greens wholeheartedly support on the Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2017 and commend the Labor Party for introducing it. The Bill seeks to decriminalise the use and possession of cannabis for medical purposes and establishes a scheme for cultivating, manufacturing and supplying cannabis for medicinal use. The Greens welcome the bill, which is similar to a bill introduced by the late Dr John Kaye of The Greens in the upper House—the Drug Legislation Amendment (Cannabis for Medical Purposes) Bill 2014. I take this opportunity to quote the late Dr John Kaye because he described the reform so well. He stated:

This is a bill of compassion and empathy. This is a bill of rationality and courage. It is a bill to end the timidity and the hysteria induced by the war on drugs.

9 August 2017 

It was National Homelessness Week this week - instead of making a genuine cross-party effort to take the complex social issues behind homelessness, the NSW coalition government chose to change the law to increase police powers to move on homeless people in Martin Place, in central Sydney, by introducing the Sydney Public Reserves (Public Safety) Bill 2017.

Here is my speech, complete with heckling, during the debate on this new piece of legislation.

3 August 2017

Ms TAMARA SMITH ( Ballina ): My question is directed to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Will the Minister commit to State Emergency Service volunteers and to communities across the State that funding for the essential replacement of SES vehicles—vehicles that the service has relied on to keep our community safe more than 35,000 times in the last financial year alone—will be maintained?

Media Release
3 August 2017

Tamara Smith, Greens Member for Ballina has today secured funding from Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant to maintain State Emergency Services vehicles.

Opinion
Byron Shire News 3 Aug 2017

I just got back from being a delegate at the PowerGen World Renewable Energy Conference in Cologne, Germany (self-funded). It was both inspiring and an eye opener! It was a three day gathering of European, Chinese, American and Indian policy makers in the renewable and energy market spaces with the world’s largest power generation corporations from across the globe. And yes you’re right nobody there was talking about the Finkel review. The reason they weren’t talking about Australia’s second major review of the energy sector in 10 years that has recommended a price on carbon (and that is being ignored by the Federal government for a second time), is because for the countries represented at the conference renewable energy has been a profitable and burgeoning industry for more than two decades.

Media Release

14 July 2017

Greens MP for Ballina, Tamara Smith said she was delighted with the announcement that Woolworths and Coles supermarkets will start to phase out single-use plastic bags in NSW over the next 12 months.

“This is a great decision for our environment and I congratulate the supermarkets on taking action themselves and recognising that consumers are ready for this change and in many cases demanding it,” said Ms Smith.

“It’s particularly apt that this announcement comes during Plastic Free July, where the public is challenged to reduce their consumption of throw away plastics – by bringing their own bags to supermarkets, bringing their own cups for takeaway coffee or refusing plastic straws or cutlery when eating on the go.”

“I have written to NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton to ask when single use lightweight plastic bags will be banned but I am glad to see that businesses such as these two big supermarkets haven’t waited for the NSW Government to get its act together."

4 July 2017

The recent TV program The War on Waste (ABC) was a real eye-opener for many people in Australia about how disposable plastics are polluting our environment.

Here in the Ballina - Byron region, while the statistics in the show were still shocking, we were already aware of the damage that plastic does in our landscape and ocean.

That’s because the Plastic Free July movement has taken off in this electorate and the Byron Shire Council is fully behind helping retailers phase out plastic shopping bags. Take a look at http://plasticfreebyron.com for ideas for retailers.

Media Release

26 July 2017

Tamara Smith, MP for Ballina today welcomed news from the Public Accounts Committee that it would be extending its deadline for public submissions on its health care inquiry to 31 July 2017.

“I was pleased to receive a letter from the chair of the Public Accounts Committee stating that the Management of Health Care Services in NSW Inquiry will extend its deadline from the end of this month until the end of July, to enable more people in the Northern Rivers Region to make submissions,” said Ms Smith.

31 May 2017
Second Reading Speech

On behalf of The Greens, I contribute to the second reading debate of the Crimes Amendment (Intimate Images) Bill 2017.

The Greens support the bill, which seeks to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to create specific offences relating to non-consensual recording and distribution of intimate images, or revenge porn. The bill creates an offence of intentionally recording or distributing or threatening to record or distribute an intimate image of another person without that person's consent. The maximum penalty for such an offence is imprisonment for three years or financial penalties. A threat to record or distribute an intimate image without consent is also an offence with the same maximum penalty.