Page 5035 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES (11.00): Mr Speaker, I have heard what the Attorney and other speakers have had to say. I am not convinced that my friends opposite are anxious to adjourn this matter mainly because they believe that there are fundamental issues of detail to be resolved. I think we can say with considerable certainty that the Labor Party is very anxious to avoid the potential loss of votes that would occur from their supporting a Bill of this kind at this time.
The other day I looked through the policy of the ALP in the ACT. It is a very amusing document worthy of a few good chuckles. A paragraph in their law reform and civil rights policy - this is a reference to what the Labor Government would do - reads:
Reform the law relating to sexual offences so that sexual acts in private between consenting adults, or consenting minors above the age of 13 where both were of similar age, whether of the same or different gender, are not contrary to criminal law.
That is a very progressive statement, if I may say so. But when it actually comes to putting that part of Labor Party policy into practice through the opportunity presented admirably by Mr Moore's Bill, which has been on the table now for well over a month, we see a bad case of cold feet. It says, "This is too difficult. There are problems which we need to resolve. Details need to be worked out. There is some problem with regulation". Whatever comes to hand is grabbed by the Labor Party and put up as an excuse. I think we are going to see every effort made by those opposite to make sure that this issue is not dealt with before the life of this Assembly expires.
Mr Berry: There will be regulation of prostitution. There will be proper regulation.
MR HUMPHRIES: There is no point in pleading and making excuses, Mr Berry. We know what you are up to. You are afraid of losing votes. You are paranoid about throwing any votes away and you want to make sure that you do not do so. Therefore, you are stalling by treading water on this Prostitution Bill.
My party also has a policy of supporting decriminalisation of prostitution. I can indicate that we will support this Bill in principle. Unless there are insurmountable problems, we are anxious to deal with this Bill before the life of this Assembly expires. I understand that the next sitting Wednesday is the only day we have to deal with it, subject of course to what the Administration and Procedures Committee might say.
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