Page 4714 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 28 November 1990
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Mr Speaker, clearly 13 arrests out of 1,670 persons to whom directions to move on were given indicates that people have accepted the move-on powers and complied with them. Were these powers to be repealed, the police would lose a very valuable law enforcement tool, particularly with regard to their increasing emphasis on community policing in the ACT.
As members are aware, community policing means that police are visible in and around places where people congregate for recreation or other purposes. It is essential that the police have the capacity to defuse quickly any situations which have the potential for violence or to break up situations where violence is actually occurring. The police have said, as I said earlier, Mr Speaker, that the move-on powers are extremely important in this regard.
The Government considers that the police have used these powers responsibly and in a professional manner and that the community at large, having seen these powers in operation, would be loath now to have the powers removed. Therefore, it would be most unwise to have the provisions of this Bill agreed to. As has already been stated, the Government is obviously opposing the Bill.
Mr Speaker, I would like to conclude my remarks this morning with a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn:
The defence of individual rights has reached such extremes as to make society as a whole defenceless against certain individuals. It is time to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.
Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I claim to have been misrepresented and seek just a couple of minutes to - - -
MR SPEAKER: At the end of the debate, please, Mr Moore.
Mr Moore: It was a misunderstanding, I think, and I was misquoted, Mr Speaker. It is under standing order 47.
MR SPEAKER: It is a different thing.
Mr Moore: Yes, I should have said that it was under standing order 47.
MR SPEAKER: Please proceed.
Mr Moore: Mrs Nolan presented the notion and quoted from Hansard to suggest that I had supported the previous Bill. She understands solidarity and its importance. If she had read the text of the speech, as I am sure she did, she would have understood and would have given the house to understand that I said:
I hope that this Bill will fill a small gap while the Social Policy Committee finds the appropriate solutions.
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