Page 4567 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 20 November 1991
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MR STEFANIAK: I am sorry. If I did, I withdraw that. I am sorry to offend Mr Connolly's delicate sensibilities. If it offends Mr Connolly, I withdraw that, Mr Speaker.
The Assembly's Standing Committee on Social Policy had before it a report which stated that licences should be restricted, quite sensibly, to only 18 hours a day so that people cannot indulge in drinking in various licensed establishments over the counter between 4.00 am and 10.00 am.
Mr Wood: That was not the committee's recommendation.
MR STEFANIAK: Well, if it was not, it should have been. I think it is time you people got a little bit fair dinkum when you are talking about alcohol abuse.
Mr Berry: Capital punishment.
MR STEFANIAK: I do not think we quite need that, Wayne. I think a few sensible measures should be taken. Again I would impress upon you the very sensible suggestions made to that committee; the reports you have, Mr Connolly, in your capacity as Attorney-General and Minister for police; the reports my colleague Mr Collaery had and talked about, but did not get around to doing anything about in relation to restricting licensing hours and taking other steps which will positively impact on the drinking problem in Canberra.
You people simply have to get used to saying "no" on occasions about a problem and introducing laws which will have some effect in terms of countering the problem. The two areas I mentioned are certainly areas where a lot of the anti-social behaviour involves binge drinking. Unfortunately, a lot of that is caused by younger people. It is not fair to those younger people that we have laws that are so lax that they are encouraged to do it.
If you do take some steps there I think we will find that a considerable portion of this problem will go away. It will not go away completely. It is true that there is no single measure that can be taken which will reduce it to virtually insignificant proportions. It is going to take a long time, if it is ever achieved.
Certainly, part of your education program, if done properly, may have some effect; but I fear that it will take a long time and it will have a very small effect compared with some simple steps you can take to rationalise the laws of the Territory, which have got completely out of hand in relation to alcohol and alcohol abuse. You can start next week, hopefully, if it gets up, by voting for the Liberal Party's dry areas Bill. If you are really concerned about this, you might start looking at some liquor licences, as well.
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