Page 886 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
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support of the Bill as an important factor in crime prevention. In addition, two Canberra retailers gave oral evidence concerning public behaviour at Melba, Rivett, Cooleman Court and shopping centres in Civic, and expressed support for the Bill.
The main concerns of those retailers were the number of persons, some consuming alcohol, congregating around the shops; groups of youths causing difficulties for customers; and vandalism. The safety of local shopping centres, particularly for young children on their own, was of particular concern to a number of witnesses.
One retailer presented to the committee a very useful survey. He presented the results he had personally carried out at several Canberra shopping centres in an effort to determine a small business response to the Bill. At three different shopping centres he found the following: At Rivett, all shops were asked and all were in favour of the Bill; at Cooleman Court he went to all shops and 36 out of the 43 were in favour, the remainder being unable to comment because either the manager or the owner was not available; in Civic, he went to 45 shops and all were in favour of the Bill.
We also heard evidence in relation to problems, not only regarding moving on but also regarding the lack of police presence in Tuggeranong. The chairman of the Tuggeranong Community Council was very much in favour of the proposed legislation. He also talked on a number of other issues, including the lack of police at Tuggeranong.
The committee recommended, as a result, that the Chief Minister urgently make representations to the Commonwealth Minister for Justice regarding improving the police presence in Canberra and particularly in Tuggeranong. It is probably common knowledge that there are only two police cars available at night-time for Tuggeranong, an area of 60,000 people.
There were a number of underlying causes also looked at by the committee. Some of those causes could indeed be looked at by the Standing Committee on Social Policy as part of its terms of reference, especially the public behaviour aspect. One of the common threads running through the misbehaviour was the evidence of alcohol and its ill-effects. A number of recommendations were made as a result by the committee. The committee recommended amendments to the Liquor Act and suggested it be made to better regulate the granting of liquor licences, the hours of trading, consumption of liquor in public places, consumption of liquor in licensed premises, and the serving of liquor in licensed premises.
As I think I indicated publicly when I first proposed this particular Bill and indeed when I first raised the topic in a consultative committee before Mr Holding in April, there is a need to amend the Liquor Act. Accordingly, I have
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