Page 2765 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Interchange or Tuggeranong, I guess, these days, without being abused or harassed. In Australia our community has a clear right of assembly, a clear right to move about the streets as we will. My colleague Mr Collaery has recently returned from Japan and there, he indicated to me, the police were everywhere, in a threatening manner. I do not believe that we have that situation in general in Australia and I would hope that in Australia we never ever get to a situation like that or to the situation we often see in the news from the United States where cities have such problems, where people's civil rights and rights to move about unhindered are continually being threatened.
It is also important to remember that if the move-on power is given to the police they also have a responsibility to ensure that the power is exercised in accordance with the law and in a spirit of cooperation on both sides. That is what community policing is all about - the community and the police working together to ensure that the community can move about the suburbs and our cities.
Unfortunately, there are occasions when some elements of our society seek to impose on the rights of others by harassment which is just short of a criminal offence but is sufficient to cause people concern and alarm about their safety. What can the police do, Mr Speaker, in such circumstances, if an offence has not actually been committed? Prior to the move-on powers being implemented they could do absolutely nothing. All they could do - I guess illegally in those days - was to seek to move people on and out of the area. They had to wait for an incident to take place before they could arrest the troublemaker or troublemakers, as the case may be; they had to wait until the damage had been done.
Let us consider, Mr Speaker, the cost of then processing the charge and the cost of the medical treatment on occasions, and the pain and suffering of the person who had been attacked after a period of incitement by a group of people. That needs to be taken into account as well, I suggest. However, with the move-on power police can take action to break up the group before it gets out of hand and more extreme action becomes necessary. As a parent, Mr Speaker, I can assure you that I would be much happier to see my son or daughter moved on, rather than have to attend a court to support them in a case involving a much more serious charge because something had been allowed to get out of hand.
The police report provided by Mr Connolly indicated that there has been a reduction in the number of offensive behaviour charges. They fell from 48 to 19 over a 12-month period. That is a significant reduction; one that I think should be noted. Just think of the reduction in the costs associated with having to process those charges in the past; the amount of time saved for police officers who in the past would have had to prepare themselves and appear in court. That is a quite considerable saving. It means, Mr
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .