Page 1047 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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Clause 11 provides for the keeping of records. Although, as I have said, there is no financial penalty for failure to keep records, the Minister can, by his powers, change the notification of prescribed places and authorised officers. So the Minister has the power to deal with that, indirectly, at least.
Clause 12 determines the release of the detainee into the care of a responsible person. Clause 13 protects police officers and authorised persons who have acted in good faith in the exercise of powers and the performance of duties under this Bill and, of course, protects them against legal action. That is a common provision, as I understand it. Clause 14 allows for the making of regulations by the Executive - an appropriate provision for territorial government.
The effect of the Bill is, I think, worth considering further. What I see as a major benefit of this Bill is the recognition that drunkenness is most appropriately dealt with away from police stations. It is accepted by society that drunkenness is a social problem and it therefore has to be addressed as such.
For many people in the community this social problem goes on to become a complex range of problems. We have all heard much discussion about the effect that alcohol might have in areas of domestic violence, and the problem ought to be addressed at all points along the way. We know that alcohol affects one's health. It also has an effect on the ability of individuals to seek employment and to hold down jobs. It results in family breakdowns and, as I have said, it also results in domestic violence. Crime also arises from one's addiction to alcohol. It therefore is necessary for the Territory to address these issues in a way which we hope will lead to a situation where the impact of intoxication on the community as a whole is lessened.
Many of us accept that reasonable intake of alcohol is a way of life; but we all know, I hope, that the consumption of alcohol will lead to a social problem if it is not dealt with properly. The aim of this legislation is to ensure that it is dealt with as a social problem rather than have people who are intoxicated find their way into the cells where, in the normal course of events, people who have trouble with the law in other areas find themselves.
I think a quote from Dr Tony Vinson, who was talking to a New South Wales Government seminar on victimless crime, is appropriate. He said:
Our present social response to public drunkenness helps to stigmatise the individual and thereby maintain his socially unacceptable behaviour. The arrest and incarceration of the drunk -
although that need not apply here -
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