Page 2754 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 1991
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MR CONNOLLY: Of course people are victims, too. We have done a lot. We were the first party to raise victims' rights in this Assembly. We placed on the notice paper the declaration of rights of victims. That was a Labor initiative. Subsequent to my putting that on the notice paper, within weeks of coming here, the Government referred the victims' rights reference to the Community Law Reform Committee, which we enthusiastically supported at the time and still do. So, you cannot throw, "What about the rights of victims?" back at the Labor Party. We have been taking strong initiatives on this.
We say that the rights of all Canberrans will be better protected if we have a criminal justice system that is directed at crime prevention, and if we have a climate in which all sections of the community trust and respect the police and accept that the vast and great powers that we do vest in the police force are reasonably vested because they are exercised fairly. When you create powers that are arbitrary and that are seen to be directed principally against a group in the community that is most at risk of drifting into criminal behaviour, the young people of Canberra, I say that you are acting in a counterproductive way. You are creating distrust of the police. You are creating a large group of people, some 2,000-odd, so far, who have been brought into what we would say is unnecessary conflict with the police.
We favour specific, identifiable offences with the discretion that has always existed for the police officer to say, "Listen, you fellows, either cut it out or I will charge you with a specific offence". The person whose behaviour is a problem knows what the incorrect behaviour is and has a choice of either stopping it or being charged with a substantive offence. Arbitrary powers, Mr Speaker, are not the way to achieve a more law-abiding society, and we reject the need for them in this community.
MR COLLAERY (10.51): I rise to speak, having had a few minutes to prepare for this, given the circumstances the Rally is in at the moment. I hope all members weep accordingly, because we are. There is much in what Mr Connolly says that is compelling, but one needs to draw it all together. It is just like the fluoride issue yesterday. Ultimately, it comes down to a balance between what is in the maximum interest of the community and what will minimise other possible problems in the community.
I am in this chamber as someone who opposed Mr Stefaniak for years and years in this town, at the bar table in prosecutions. They were mostly minor matters, criminal matters and the rest. One of the last matters I did before coming to this place was to defend the son of a prominent Canberra citizen and a friend of mine on a charge of offensive behaviour that allegedly occurred outside the Ainslie Football Club, right across the road at the fence.
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