Page 3715 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 October 1991
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Naturally, this again raises the question of how those who exercise the legislation strike the balance between the rights of the person they deal with and the requirement or the need of those people to be protected, with respect to both their health and their welfare.
The rest of the legislation sets out, I think, a fairly comprehensive set of circumstances under which the legislation can be pursued. Naturally, there will be teething problems. I expect that the Assembly may well have to deal in the future, perhaps in the next year or so, with amendments to the legislation to take into account problems in the administration. I am sure that when the time comes we will all be very pleased to see how well, hopefully, the legislation is working. I certainly believe that there is evident in the legislation a framework to ensure that it does work reasonably well.
Mr Speaker, as my colleague Mr Stefaniak indicated, I certainly join my colleagues in commending this legislation to the house, congratulating those who made it possible, including the present and former Attorneys-General, and wishing its passage through the Assembly the accompaniment of successful administration in the years ahead.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (9.15), in reply: Mr Speaker, I was very pleased to hear the remarks of members tonight - of Mr Collaery, the former Attorney who steered this legislation through its earlier stages, Mr Stefaniak, Ms Maher and Mr Humphries - apart from Mr Humphries' earlier hysterical ravings which I suppose he could not resist getting into and which I will return with interest a little later on. At the outset I think we should rise above all of that and really reflect on the very positive references that have been made by all members to this legislation.
There is no doubt that this legislation is long overdue. If the Government is at fault in any of this, I suppose our fault is overeagerness. As I interjected during Mr Humphries' remarks, this is a government that is hungry for reform; this is a government that, when it sees an injustice, wants it remedied. There is no doubt that the situation that has long prevailed in this Territory, where people have had to be placed in the undignified position of going before the Supreme Court and seeking orders under the Lunacy Act 1898, has been a severe injustice, and this Government wants that remedied and wants it remedied quickly.
The reforms in this package of legislation, which were first suggested by the Australian Law Reform Commission, are reforms that generally all are agreed should happen. There is no doubt that, when the legislation was presented to this Assembly by the Government on 12 September, we
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