Page 4717 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 28 November 1990
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Mr Moore: Now you are a member of the Alliance.
MR DUBY: That is right. I am a Minister, mate, but you are not.
Mr Moore: Now you are a member of the Alliance and a Minister, and you have gone very conservative.
MR DUBY: I am a Minister, and you are not. Not only that, but you could have been. The move-on powers have been effective. It has been pointed out in the debate that over 1,600 people have been requested by the police to move on and, of those 1,600, less than one per cent or, I believe, 13 people have been arrested. I think those figures speak for themselves. The vast majority of the directions to move on, which have been given by the police, have been complied with.
I guess the question that then arises is: what would the Opposition wish to put in place of this Act? Obviously the answer seems to be nothing. The AFP have said that the move-on powers are a valuable law enforcement tool and, looking at those statistics, I can see why. The implication, Mr Speaker, is that they are essential to the maintenance of law and order and to the well-being of the average member of the community. Without such a tool, well used as it has been, they would be powerless to effectively address situations in which violence may erupt or in which violence is actually occurring. That is a matter about which all thinking members of the community, particularly those with young children, are concerned.
The move-on powers have proved to be effective without impacting on people's personal freedoms; yet they ensure that the rights of citizens to participate peacefully in events or to be in public places without having to experience undue harassment are upheld. Mr Speaker, I think the repeal of the move-on powers would be of considerable concern to the community. To that extent, this private members' Bill, the Police Offences (Amendment) Bill 1990, should not proceed.
MR JENSEN (12.00): Mr Speaker, I wish to make a couple of points about the issues raised by Mr Connolly during this debate, plus a couple of comments on the matter. It seemed to me that when Mr Connolly was speaking there was a suggestion that the police should be taking up the cudgels, so to speak, and arresting people for incidents that were taking place rather than seeking to discourage the need for arrest by asking these people to desist from what they were doing, certainly in relation to the offensive behaviour that sometimes we see in the streets.
I think it is important that our young people be given the opportunity to reconsider their actions and possibly move a little further down the road rather than force themselves into a confrontational situation with the police and the subsequent problems associated with that, which would result in an arrest and an appearance before a magistrate.
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