LABOR'S Indi candidate has told a 12 year-old student, worried at illicit substance use at school, that drugs should be decriminalised.
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Nadia David was replying to a question from the child at an election candidates' forum in Wodonga on Tuesday night.
The student, who was wearing a Catholic College Wodonga uniform, spoke of concern about the level of drug use and asked Ms David and other candidates Indi MP Helen Haines and Green Benjamin Gilbert to respond.
After asking the student's age, Ms David said: "The first thing that we need to do is decriminalise drugs.
"I know that's going to sound counterintuitive but that's kinda how we do it, because if we keep making sure some drugs are legal and some drugs aren't, we're going to push all drug users in a particular direction and young people will try things."
Ms David said vaping was a problem "but banning stuff doesn't stop people doing things....I'm a criminologist I can tell you with some authority it does not".
The former policewoman said trauma and disadvantage drove drug use, "so at your school there's probably a need for some community work in the school to make kids feel like they don't actually have to take drugs to feel okay about themselves or to dull feelings".
Mr Gilbert was shocked by the student's outline, saying it was "terrifying to hear".
He said if there were better MPs "I don't think you would have as many kids taking drugs at school".
In her answer, Dr Haines noted the most commonly used drug in society and most harmful was alcohol.
Other questions raised at the forum, held at La Trobe University and organised by Social Work Action Group, covered tertiary education funding and fees, climate change, the NDIS, Indigenous recognition, cost of living, human rights and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In responding to a question about integrity, Ms David took a swipe at Dr Haines over the Independent MP's approach to postal voting.
"I do take a bit of umbrage at Helen saying that she is the integrity candidate because I know for a fact that this year Helen used postal votes as a way of data mining and I'm sorry to say Helen I didn't do that, I don't agree with that," Ms David said.
"I know my party does it, there are people that do it, I chose not to do it because even it means that I'm not going to get a couple of hundred votes I chose not to do it."
Dr Haines, who had already given her answer to the question, rose to the lectern to deny she engaged in such methodology.
"I need to take umbrage at data mining," Dr Haines said.
"There was no data mining in my office, we sent out postal applications to every person on the electoral roll, it is a service to the electorate there was no QR codes, there was no sending information to anybody else or mining data."
After returning to her seat alongside the Labor candidate, Dr Haines was then asked by Ms David why she just did not direct voters to the Australian Electoral Commission for postal ballots.
Ms David also said she believed Dr Haines had voted in parliament to support an increase in the cost of university degrees to $50,000.
"I vehemently oppose that," the university lecturer said, noting all her first-year students were working, some up to 40 hours a week, and most lived at home.
Ms David and Dr Haines both agreed a return to fee-free degrees would not occur.
However, Mr Gilbert said the state could "absolutely" afford free tertiary education and to cancel HECS debts.
"It's ridiculous to think in 2022 a country as wealthy as Australia can't just lower the bar and get rid of the entitlement," Mr Gilbert said.
"The most valuable thing in the universe is knowledge, we need to be investing in knowledge.
"We can have professional students, people that do degree after degree....they contribute to society in ways that aren't captured in a capitalist system."
The Coalition candidates for Indi, Ross Lyman (Liberal) and Liz Fisher (Nationals), were absent from the forum because they were at Les Cheesley Oval in Wodonga to make an election promise.
They announced if the federal government was re-elected, $500,000 would be spent on improving lighting at the ground which is used for cricket and senior men's and women's football as well as junior grades.
They met with administrators from Wodonga Saints and Wodonga Cricket Club.
New LED gear would allow broadcast quality light for T20 cricket matches.
Mr Lyman and Ms Fisher plan to attend a candidates' session at Mansfield on Wednesday night.
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