Page 4797 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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MR STEFANIAK: Perhaps he should get it himself, in this day and age. Maybe that is a bit sexist. But I am quite happy to take him up on his offer to have a beer with him. I am quite happy to go to the fridge and get it, to save his wife the trouble. There is no real problem there and, accordingly, when that problem was raised by Mr Duby and a couple of others, I had no hesitation in altering it.
One of the other planks of this legislation is that, even though people will not be able to hoon around and drink in Garema Place, if someone wants to hold the Oktoberfest, for example, there is nothing to stop them from simply taking out a permit and doing so. There is ample provision to look after the legitimate rights of all concerned. It is moderate legislation, it is sensible legislation, and it is legislation that I think has the support of a vast majority of Canberra citizens. Legitimate civil liberties concerns have been taken into account and the real civil liberties rights of ordinary Canberra citizens to use their bus interchanges and shopping centres without being harassed are taken into account.
I never fail to be amazed and, indeed, dismayed at the attitude of the ALP to some of these things. I thought for a while that they might support this, especially with the Attorney-General being a South Australian. Whatever happened in the Labor caucus, the majority simply was not there. I listened with interest to Mr Berry's speech because Mr Berry of all people, being a traditional unionist and being a member of the Left of the Labor Party, surely must have concern for the underprivileged of our community. They are the elderly and the very young who take the buses.
I am reminded of the words - I am not too sure whether it was Comrade Lenin, but it was certainly in the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution - about hooligan acts. Perhaps the acts committed against ordinary citizens of Canberra who use the buses, especially the elderly and the young, fall into line with the old communist adage about acts of petty hooliganism. Mr Berry, such petty bourgeois behaviour really is incompatible with socialist reality. I have problems seeing why you cannot support this legislation, even on an ideological ground. It is aimed at protecting the people I would have thought you would want to see protected most.
The fine is a very low one. It is lower than most of our traffic infringement fines. But that is not the point. The main point is doing something against the excessive drinking we have in our community. This is one small step but a significant step, in that it will stop drinking in certain of the identified problem areas. The power in the legislation to enable the government of the day to proclaim other areas as dry areas ensures that from time to time any other problem spots can be addressed. That gives the legislation a lot of flexibility.
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