Page 4813 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
CRIMES (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1991
[COGNATE BILL:
MAGISTRATES COURT (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1991]
Debate resumed from 11 September 1991, on motion by Mr Collaery:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with order of the day No. 4, Magistrates Court (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1991? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 3 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 4.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (3.22): The Government will not be supporting these two Bills. It is the view of the Government that it is both unnecessary and premature to enact legislation along these lines. That is not to say that the Government is not sympathetic to the need for adequate interpreter services in the courts of the ACT and the need to do more in that provision.
The reason for the Government's opposition is that in May of this year a very substantial report from the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department entitled "Access to Interpreters in the Australian Legal System", which I wave around, was tabled in the Federal Parliament. This very comprehensive report was the result of an extensive study, as part of the Prime Minister's national agenda for a multicultural Australia, on access to interpreters in the Australian legal system. The committee of inquiry that produced this report travelled the length and breadth of Australia, took submissions from organisations and individuals with an interest in the provision of interpreter services, and came down with a very comprehensive and well-researched report which recommends a national approach to the provision of interpreters in the Australian court system.
The Commonwealth Attorney-General, Mr Duffy, wrote to me in June of this year seeking the Government's views on this, as he did to all State and Territory Attorneys, and I, as a result of that, wrote to the Chief Justice, the Chief Magistrate, the Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, and other interested bodies, including the legal aid authorities, to seek their views on this. There is general agreement amongst government agencies that this is the appropriate course to pursue.
The issue of uniform legislation to provide for interpreters in the Australian court system was placed on the agenda of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General at its most recent meeting in Melbourne. So, things are moving, Mr Speaker, to produce a national system to
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .