Page 2761 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 1991
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I do not believe that the position that the Government and that Mr Connolly have articulated today would be much shared by many direct victims of crime. The fundamental duty of any legislator is to provide a framework of safety and security for the citizens of that community. That is the fundamental duty of this Assembly, as indeed it is of every other parliament in this country. I believe that it is in pursuance of that duty, that obligation, that we should consider this Bill today and, I believe, should pass it.
Mr Connolly also makes the point that the move-on powers are directed at a particular group of people. That is an interesting statement. Presumably, the statement is that this group of people, mainly the young, are people who are in some way more likely to be victims of move-on powers. I would probably concede that. The young probably are more likely to be people against whom move-on powers are used. As Mr Connolly himself said, it is in many ways more likely that those young people, perhaps in some cases with a tendency towards being delinquent - all young people at some stage go through that phase of being a little bit reckless, a little bit - - -
Ms Follett: Speak for yourself.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure I speak for most normal people. You go through a stage where you test authority; one sees how far one can go. Young people are in fact the people who most test the law. In many respects they, probably rightfully, are the people against whom the threat of the move-on power is used. I am not concerned or worried about that. That is only a fair observation. It will be people in that general age group who will be more likely to be committing those sorts of minor crimes of which Mr Connolly spoke, for those very reasons.
For him to suggest that this particular power has a discretionary element I think underestimates the very large discretionary element of many powers that police exercise. The power to arrest has an element of discretion in it. The crime with which a person is charged subsequent to that arrest, of course, has to be very clearly defined and proved in a court. But the power to arrest itself has an element of discretion in it. If Mr Connolly does not believe that he should go and watch police working, without being seen perhaps, for a period of time. He might see what I mean.
I do believe that there is distinct value in these powers. I believe that the spirit in which the Assembly passed this legislation originally in 1989 was that we should see whether there was value, and the evidence is quite clear that there is value. I refer to the most recent report that the police have provided to the Government. It is in the same vein as other reports which have been delivered to successive governments on this question.
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