Page 4468 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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I commend the Bill to the house. I have a concern about the very large volume of amendments being put forward tonight. I have to say that I am not really in favour of us trying to push all those amendments through tonight. They have multiplied across my desk, in the space of the last couple of hours, at an alarming rate. I have to say that I hope we will be very careful about the process of passing these sorts of things into law without very careful consideration of what we are doing. But, as I have indicated, very clearly, the Liberal Party believes that legislation of this kind is a major advance for the citizens of this Territory.
MR DUBY (10.09): I am proud to be part of this Assembly which is involved in passing this historic legislation in the ACT, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Bill 1991. Whether we disagree or agree with the title of the Bill is immaterial. The fact remains that, like everything, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The simple fact is that the very many provisions which are in this Bill will, hopefully, put to rest the issue of discrimination against persons on a whole range of issues in the Territory. It will bring the Territory into line with other jurisdictions in Australia with similar legislation in place. At the end of the day, members of this first Assembly will be able to say that we are proud that we were able to pass this legislation and put it into place so that we can hold our heads high in this Territory and say, "Yes, we support these particular issues".
Of course, as Mr Humphries has mentioned, quite a number of amendments have been proposed by various members this evening. I have been busily - as has everyone else, I imagine - cross-referencing them to the original Bill. Nevertheless, I do not share Mr Humphries' view that we should defer consideration of this Bill tonight, if that is what he was suggesting. I think we should get on and get it through so that this historic legislation can indeed be placed into effect in the ACT. I certainly support the Bill in most of its provisions and indeed in the spirit in which it is written. I think most members of this Assembly will join with me in congratulating the Government for bringing this forward.
MR MOORE (10.11): I think a great day has come in that we are now in a position to debate the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Bill. It is an issue that certainly Mr Collaery and I had discussed back in the days when I was a member of the Residents Rally, and I am aware that Mr Collaery had pushed for it for a long time. I am sure that it is a great disappointment to him that he has not been able to be the person introducing this Bill. However, it has been introduced - by Ms Follett, who, of course, also has had a long involvement in the area.
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