Page 5076 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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MR STEVENSON: Rosemary Follett says that she will be here. The point is not so much whether members will be here when Bills are rammed through the Assembly, but whether the public have any notice of them or have the opportunity to seek notice of them. We well understand that the members of this Assembly do not know the names of all the Bills that are currently before the Assembly. What about the people in the community that have not the faintest understanding about most of what we do in this Assembly? That is why I think broadcasting the Assembly on the radio - for a start question time, but then expanding it - would be an excellent idea. People would have an opportunity to hear when Bills are introduced and so on.
How is it that we are prepared to force Bills through this Assembly without giving the people of Canberra an opportunity to know what is happening? I know that Mr Berry says that the Bills are urgent or something, but that is only in his consideration. I am sure that the majority of people do not believe that the Labor Bills are vital. After all, we have done without whatever they are for a great deal of time. Why is it supposedly necessary now that we force these Bills through by Christmas?
What about the opportunity for members of the Assembly to consult with members of the community and organisations and to let them know about Bills we think are important? Where does that opportunity go when Bills are rammed through at this speed? What about the opportunity for those groups and individuals to go along to their legal advisers, to their members, and ask what they feel about the proposed new laws that are before the Assembly?
The important thing about Bills is that once they are enacted they become law, and people are penalised regardless of whether they knew that that was a law or not. It has been held for a long time in Australia and England that ignorance of the law is no defence. Could it be that, because of the some three million laws that have been passed in Australia since Federation, that will become a defence? Will it be held, "If you did not know that it was there, how on earth could we charge you with an offence"?
After all, not even the members in parliaments in Australia know what Bills have gone through. In cases I have mentioned before in this house, not even the Minister signing the Bill knew what he had signed. There are other cases where Bills are drafted and not even the person drafting them understands fully what he has done. That may be an unusual case, but it has happened.
What about the opportunity for people to research the Bills that we let them know about, to go out and discover both sides of the argument? Where is the time for that when we ram through Bills in one day, two days, three, four, five, six, seven, and so on? As I have mentioned in this Assembly in the past, and we have surveyed it more than once, people in Canberra do not agree with Bills being passed unless there is a minimum of 30 days.
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