Page 3480 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
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Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
CRIMES (OFFENCES AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT)
(AMENDMENT) BILL 1991
Debate resumed from 12 September 1991, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR STEFANIAK (3.58): The Liberal Party supports this Bill. This is a quite important Bill. One of the most annoying problems in a court case is having to go through a great convoluted process of proving the obvious. Basically, this Bill will enable, by way of documentation, the Crown to prove that the Government, the Territory, the Territorial Government, owns certain properties, and, indeed, that certain properties are owned by certain statutory authorities within the Territory.
Unless a Bill such as this goes through, to prove that something actually belongs to the Territory, no matter how obvious it might be to a layman, quite often the Crown has to go through a quite convoluted process of calling witnesses and producing reams of documents to formally prove what, to everyone, is simply quite obvious.
Basically, by means of this Bill one document will be prima facie proof that property belongs to the ACT Government. If someone wants to dispute that, they will have to call evidence to do so. So, basically, this just formalises what is the obvious. All too often, certainly at times when I have prosecuted in the ACT courts, I have seen cases delayed and a lot of costs and trouble incurred by the Crown having to formally prove what, to everyone, is quite obvious. So, it is a very necessary Bill. I am amazed that it has taken this long to get it before this Assembly. It certainly is important and it will reduce the potential for quite a lot of time and money to be wasted needlessly. It is supported by the Liberal Party.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.00), in reply: The Government is pleased that this Bill has the support of the Assembly. As Mr Stefaniak said, when you are in a court proceeding it is often the bleeding obvious that is the hardest thing to prove. This Bill does deal with the obvious issue, when what is at stake is theft or damage to government property, and that is the ownership of government property.
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