Page 3161 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 11 September 1991
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I know that a lot of people who are drinking at the Woden bus interchange come from some problem areas in Lyons, such as the Lyons flats. What is wrong with them going and drinking with their mates in the flats, or drinking somewhere other than the bus interchange, rather than annoying the ordinary men and women of Canberra who use that bus interchange?
Maybe I will put it in some language that even the Labor Party can understand, with its rather warped ideology in terms of police, public order and the like: The people of Canberra who are affected by the actions of these very selfish anti-social louts are basically your type of constituent. The big bosses do not go to the bus interchange; they are driving around in their limousines, ripping off all the poor workers.
It is the ordinary workers of Canberra who use the bus interchanges, for obvious reasons; they have to. They probably cannot afford to take the car into work. It is the old age pensioners and the young kids who are going to school who use the bus interchanges. They are the ones who are hassled by these louts and yobbos. It is not the rich. And it is no wonder that they are not Labor Party constituents - because you have left them. You do not represent the people that you - - -
Mr Connolly: Give them all guns, Bill.
MR STEFANIAK: I do not think we should do that. I am talking about the ordinary people who want to get into the buses and move on in that way and go about their ordinary everyday business. They are really concerned as to what is happening out there.
That is something that is so obvious. It comes out in the various Assembly reports I have referred to, and it comes out in police reports. It is a source of concern which comes out in various letters to the paper from ordinary citizens now and again. And, if you go out and talk to people in the street, I do not think you will find very many at all who think that drinking should be allowed in the bus interchanges or around the shopping centres. Basically, Mr Speaker, that is what this Bill addresses, together with making provision for dry areas for other problem areas that may from time to time arise.
Looking at the States and Territories, we are the only one in the Commonwealth at present where you can drink anywhere, without restriction. South Australia, as the Attorney-General knows, has very successfully used dry areas, as have some local councils in New South Wales. Some such councils close at hand, I believe, are Queanbeyan and, indeed, Mittagong. I think that even Goulburn might have some areas as well now.
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