Page 5144 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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about an act that has been done; it is not something that has had any effect on somebody. That is the important point. There is no effect whatsoever; it is simply something that someone may have proposed.
What Mr Berry and the other ALP members in this Assembly would do is make it an offence simply to propose something. You would become, if you did that, someone who should be dragged before a star tribunal and forced to answer questions and produce documentation. Why? Simply because you suggested something to somebody. The interesting thing, as I read the Bill, is that it does not even allow you to suggest it to any other person. The Bill says, at paragraph 8(1)(a):
the person treats or proposes to treat the other unfavourably because the other person has an attribute referred to in section 7;
That does not even say that you have to tell anybody. If you wrote down in your planning diary that you were thinking about doing something, or wrote down a suggestion that you made to somebody, under the Bill you would become an offender. Supposedly, I am the only person in this Assembly who is going to stand up and speak up for people and say that they should be allowed to propose whatever they like. I believe that under our law in Australia you could even propose to kill somebody and it might not be an offence. Perhaps Mr Collaery or Mr Connolly might like to comment.
Mr Collaery: Don't tempt me, Dennis.
MR STEVENSON: The interesting point is: Is that an offence? Are there situations where you could propose to commit a crime? What about some other crime? What about a crime of breaking and entering? Is there such a crime as proposing to break and enter? Is there such a crime as proposing to steal someone's car? If not, if these things are not crimes if you propose to do them, how on earth - - -
Mr Duby: They are.
MR STEVENSON: I wonder under what Act it is a crime if someone says that they are proposing to do something and suggests - - -
Mr Duby: Dennis, if you say that you are going to kill me, that is an offence.
MR STEVENSON: No, I did not talk about that. I changed that one. Say I was proposing to break a window or whatever. Once again, I do not believe, and I would have to be convinced, that it is an offence to propose various things under our normal laws in Australia. I know that
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