Page 4781 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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By any standard Canberra is a safe city. The Committee accepts this view which was clearly expressed to it.
That is not to deny that there is a measure of violence in Canberra and the Committee acknowledges that the community must take every measure to prevent violence and unacceptable behaviours and the conditions which contribute to them.
Almost universally, where there are problems, they can be attributed to the consequences of the abuse of alcohol. Accordingly, the Committee's attention has substantially focused on the role that alcohol plays in promoting undesirable behaviours and means by which the problem may be diminished.
I would have thought that Mr Stefaniak's legislation was consistent with the concerns identified by that all-party committee. The Rally made its own inquiry. We checked on the Woden bus interchange. A reliable, credible member of our staff indicated to us that, yes, people are boozing, lying about and harassing people. Some of us are not easily intimidated - I do not imagine that Bill Stefaniak is easily intimidated - but other citizens are, and some citizens are affronted by what some of us could quite easily encompass. We are a male-dominated Assembly, and we must consider that women may feel vulnerable in the dark hours in and about those interchanges, even though those drinkers are doing no more than squabbling among themselves and chiacking and skylarking.
The question is whether we can assure the comfort of ACTION's patrons. Again, I express concern that Mr Connolly has not leant towards the comfort of the people within ACTION, which he administers. This is not an oppressive measure. Some months ago I did a quick review of the laws around the country in this regard. For a number of cultural reasons, there are restricted areas in the north of Australia, in Western Australia and in South Australia. In the Northern Territory legislation there is a provision that allows the making of restricted areas. That is done by the registrar or the deputy registrar signing a certificate. I am not sure whether that is a disallowable instrument in the Northern Territory Assembly.
We are not doing anything extreme by national standards in this Bill introduced by Mr Stefaniak. I think it is fair to say that we should be very careful not to view all legislation that Mr Stefaniak introduces to this chamber as extreme. Mr Stefaniak puts his views over very forcefully, but those of us who were in this chamber the other day debating the human rights legislation and those who care to look at Hansard will see a most moving passage by Mr Stefaniak about himself, his parents and his upbringing, about discrimination and how he feels about oppression.
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