Page 4252 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 October 1991
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One also, I think, when we are talking about this, has to look at what Quamby is. Quamby is a remand centre. It is also a centre where children - and "children" now means anyone under 18 years - can spend a more lengthy time if they have been sentenced to serve a period there. Some people have criticised Quamby as being too lenient a type of institution. I have heard criticisms of it as being a bit like a holiday camp. But at least it is our institution. Children do go there, and it is a place where young people can stay in the Territory for a variety of reasons, including, and I would submit quite safely, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, if they do not pay fines.
I often wonder whether the people opposite believe that anyone should ever be incarcerated for any reason. If they had their way, they probably would sentence Jack the Ripper to 30 hours at an anger management course or something like that.
There is, in the scheme of things, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, a place for what I am proposing. It worked very well up until 1986. I think it should be brought in again. The matter has been brought to my attention by practitioners in the area, including duty solicitors who work with legal aid, and they all say that the enforcement provisions in this Act are a joke. It is something that the Assembly should look at. I am glad to be able to take the opportunity for my party to look at it and act on the advice of the experts in the area, the practitioners of the area, and try to rectify this defect.
I specifically read out most of section 52 in relation to how courts go about fines, so that people in this Assembly have some appreciation of how the system works. A court is not going to impose a fine unless a young person is able to pay that fine. If the young person's circumstances change, that young person can come back before the court and apply for a variation. The courts will give that; they invariably do. I think I have far more practical experience in these courts of this Territory than anyone else in this Assembly and I would certainly agree with that from my personal experience. Indeed, that is the experience of the practitioners who want to see this particular provision in there.
There is not much point in fining young people when they know that there is nothing really that the court can do to enforce the fine. There are wads of unpaid fines for which the court is having great difficulty getting payment. When they do attempt to do it they go through a convoluted process, set out in section 54, which costs thousands and thousands of dollars and simply is not proving to be terribly effective. It is a real problem.
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