Page 895 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
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Minister by some of my learned legal colleagues in this town - there is very little threat proposed by a Bill which strikes at three, perhaps four, very defined public acts in defined areas, in circumstances where, for example, there can be a mixture of an objective and subjective test by the constable responsible for breaking up the situation.
Mr Speaker, at my invitation, a witness gave evidence which suggested that he would not have been charged and ultimately convicted of offensive behaviour if he had been asked to move on. In that respect, I could not personally agree at all with the Law Reform Commission proposal to mount this offensive that had to be put forward under section 546A of the Crimes Act.
If any provision has being misused in this town over the years - and I say that respectfully, but having regard to personal experience - it has been that noxious provision that deals with riotous, indecent and offensive behaviour and the like. The police have used that to bring people into custody when they have lacked powers to do anything else with a cheeky, obstreperous youngster who has been happily watching a brawl.
The move-on power in that circumstance might well lessen the incidence of the misuse of that power. I trust that the AFP will take note of my remarks as a committee member. Mr Speaker, I ask that the Australian Labor Party not rush to prejudgment on this Bill; that it not issue any dramatic press release to further excite misinformed opinion in the community about this Bill.
Whatever Mr Stefaniak set out to do, whatever his real motives are - and there is an imputation in the submission by the ALP - I have seen no evidence that Mr Stefaniak was seeking to make political capital in his proposal and it seems to me, having known Mr Stefaniak as an honourable person for many years, that he has a genuine concern for these issues he has put forward. I ultimately differed personally with the structure, although I encouraged him initially and I am happy to be on record as saying that.
Mr Speaker, the crime statistics in the ACT Economic Report, page 27, indicate that crime has not particularly increased over the last three years in the area of offences, including sexual offences. Some of the hyperbole about the increasing rate of crime, of course, is just that. But the fact remains that there are unprotected elements in the community. The shopkeepers at Melba and Rivett said very eloquently that there was a mixed alcohol based problem in their shopping areas.
In the interim, here is a Bill which, ultimately corrected by the parliamentary draftsman and corrected possibly by any other informed advice, can contain the situation until this Government gets control of the Liquor Ordinance and can properly police a number of aspects of the legislation.
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