Sturge: ‘If we’re bussing their tail, it’s because we care.’

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge says the Gov­ern­ment’s con­tro­ver­sial leg­is­la­tion re­strict­ing young peo­ple’s ac­cess to al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling is an act of “tough love,” com­par­ing it to a par­ent phys­i­cal­ly dis­ci­plin­ing a child for his or her own good.

Dur­ing de­bate on the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026, Sturge ar­gued that chil­dren may re­sent be­ing phys­i­cal­ly scold­ed at the time but lat­er recog­nise that their par­ents were try­ing to pro­tect them.

“When you share licks, they com­plain, that's all. And then years lat­er, they say, ‘Dad­dy, thank you for bussing my tail. Be­cause if you didn't care, if you didn't buss my tail, I would nev­er learn the les­son. I would have been lis­ten­ing to my friends,’” Sturge said.

“That is what car­ing peo­ple do. And that is what we are do­ing.”

Sturge re­peat­ed­ly de­scribed the leg­is­la­tion as “bit­ter med­i­cine,” say­ing some young peo­ple may strong­ly op­pose the re­stric­tions now but could ap­pre­ci­ate them lat­er.

The Bill pro­pos­es rais­ing the per­mis­si­ble age for al­co­hol and to­bac­co from 18 to 21, while set­ting the thresh­old for cannabis and gam­bling at 25.

The To­co/San­gre Grande MP said the mea­sures were nec­es­sary to pro­tect young peo­ple whom he be­lieves may not ful­ly ap­pre­ci­ate the con­se­quences of their choic­es.

“This bit­ter med­i­cine is what many young men and women in my con­stituen­cy so des­per­ate­ly need,” he said.

He de­scribed the leg­is­la­tion as a man­i­fes­ta­tion of “moth­er­ly love,” “grand­moth­er­ly love” and “fa­ther­ly love,” ar­gu­ing that par­ents who care about their chil­dren some­times have to im­pose re­stric­tions on them.

“When you love your chil­dren, you are strict with them. When you do not tru­ly love them, you share a joint with them,” he said.

Sturge said the Gov­ern­ment was adopt­ing the same ap­proach through the leg­is­la­tion.

“Now is the time, Mr Speak­er, for tough love,” he said.

Lat­er in his con­tri­bu­tion, Sturge re­turned to the anal­o­gy, pre­dict­ing that young peo­ple af­fect­ed by the leg­is­la­tion would even­tu­al­ly thank the Gov­ern­ment.

“If we're bust­ing their tail, it's be­cause we care about them,” he said. “We care.”

Sturge main­tained that the leg­is­la­tion was in­tend­ed to pro­tect rather than crim­i­nalise young peo­ple, ar­gu­ing that Gov­ern­ment had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to in­ter­vene where it be­lieved al­co­hol, drugs and oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties were dam­ag­ing their lives.

“We have to save them,” he said.