MP rebuked over drug claim
Police Minister Liza Harvey has declared Opposition attempts to shield mentally impaired people from the Government’s tough new burglary laws would allow people “binging on methamphetamines” to invade homes with impunity.
The comments in Parliament today drew an immediate rebuke from the WA Association for Mental Health, which said it was “misleading and stigmatising” to equate mental impairment with drug use.
Under a 2013 election promise, the Government has introduced legislation creating mandatory minimum jail terms of up to 15 years for serious and sexual assaults during home invasions.
Labor is not opposing the legislation but is seeking to amend it to shield people “suffering from a mental impairment” from its mandatory sentences.
In question time, Mrs Harvey said the Government would not accept the amendment.
“The amendment basically gives a get out of jail free card to anyone under the influence of methamphetamine,” she said.
“Mental impairment” is defined under the Criminal Law (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act as “intellectual disability, mental illness, brain damage or senility”.
WAAMH president Alison Xamon said taking drugs did not constitute a mental impairment and it was “very disappointing that these sorts of misleading and stigmatising comments are able to be perpetuated”.
