Page 1312 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 August 1989
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I will give you another example: There was a young fellow, about 13 years of age, at 3 o'clock in the morning, parked in a car near a well-known hang-out of homosexuals. The police pulled up and asked him to move on. The police were told they had no right to move him on. He was asked why he was there; he gave an excuse. They came back an hour later; he was still there; he gave another excuse. Here was this young fellow hanging around a well-known area and the police were trying to protect him. Eventually, he did move on after several attempts by the police, but they were given a hard time because they had no power to move him on. When they did get back to the station, the next day, the mother of this young person, who was only 13, complained.
The point is that here we have a case where the police were trying to protect that young person and the community and they had no power to do so. I put it to you that we have certain areas where this needs to be done. Again, I will just make the point that the liberties of the few are being compromised, but let us not forget the liberties of the many. Those liberties include the feeling of security and well-being when walking through the streets - common rights and privileges gained only by curtailing some individual behaviour patterns. And this has not changed over the centuries; this is nothing new. What I am saying is let us protect the majority from the minority.
We are seeing a highly organised reaction against this Bill by people of conscience who do not wish to see in force laws which are capable of abuse by the police; and it is a noble position. But let us ask the question again: Are we protecting the majority of the public? That is the question. Let us bite the bullet; let us support this Bill; let us support the people we depend on when we are in strife. We all call the police names at different times when we are picked up for speeding, or parking, or something like that. But whenever there is a problem of real concern within the community that affects us personally, we love the police support we get, and I think we should give them the support they so rightly deserve.
MR STEVENSON (11.03): I support Bill's Bill on "the Bill". I believe the Bill is about freedom, not the restriction of freedom. We all understand well that there are problems that occur from time to time, particularly in specific areas in Canberra. Most of us have spoken to police, most of us have spoken to citizens. I think most of us have spoken to young people, who indeed acknowledge that at times some of them cause problems, as some of us in this house may have done when we were younger - without naming any particular people.
If there is a problem, at the moment the police have two options. They can in effect do nothing, though they may try to do something, or they can arrest someone. It is important to look at the possibility of arrest. It should be very definitely for committing an offence. If it is a
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