Page 1486 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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Mr Collaery: How did you get the first draft?
MR WOOD: It is all freely available. These are all documents of the parliament. I am reading from the submissions to that inquiry which are freely available from the committee office. The Australian Capital Territory Bar Association says:
The proposed changes to the present Act are unnecessary and therefore undesirable. They represent a significant intrusion into the liberty of the subject which, in the circumstances, is unwarranted.
I think that is a strong opinion. It continues:
The behaviour complained of would appear to be capable of being controlled under existing legislation. In regard to that behaviour, the problem would appear to be one of enforcement rather than of requiring legislative amendment.
The association later says:
In relation to loitering -
and let me note that the committee changed the word "loitering" and substituted more modern words -
existing legislation is available to deal with this perceived problem.
We could have written in some detail what the Law Reform Commission through Justice Elizabeth Evatt was saying. The view of virtually all members of the committee of that first draft was that a Bill in this form was not desirable. If members of the committee had wanted to present a balanced report, this would have been part of their debate and their discussions; they would have said this.
In other committees I have served on, we argue the pros and cons, put in all the views that are there and then make our assessments. It was entirely up to the committee to say that they disagreed. The debate should have been there. This is basic legal advice from the most appropriate people, not just in this Territory but also in Australia, yet they did not give reference to it.
Mr Collaery: It was not about the Bill before the committee, was it? Tell the truth. You are totally misleading the house.
MR WOOD: Mr Collaery, it was. You had better backtrack. You had better check the various steps that were taken and the various proposals that were announced. I have been meticulous in pointing out on which drafts the comments were made and I have been meticulous to point out that there were changes.
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