Ms Ruby Lawlor:

It is really important what the Senator said because if you do not invest in the communities at the same time as making policy reforms, particularly legalising and regulating, then you are not going to fulfil what is necessary or the aims of the policy reform in the first place. It is important to examine how much money and effort is being wasted. There have been good efforts made to build up these communities and ensure employability for young people in marginalised communities. These efforts to improve socioeconomic lifestyles are being wasted because of the punitive and prohibitionist policies that allow for the gangs in these communities to strive, and continue to have more power and influence than any good that you are trying to do within these communities in terms of building up the socioeconomic realities.