Page 5184 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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ADJOURNMENT
Motion (by Mr Berry) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Aidex
MR STEFANIAK (10.44): I think it is probably appropriate, as we have been dealing with the discrimination Bill, to mention that I think there were, perhaps, some instances of discrimination, and reverse discrimination perhaps, out at Aidex. I was very disturbed today to hear a report from my assistant who went out there and spoke with both police and demonstrators. Might I say at this stage, especially for the benefit of my old friend Dr Kinloch, that there are some sincere, peaceful demonstrators there. My assistant talked to groups such as the Western Australian Peace Movement and Christians for Peace. These individuals have been protesting for peace since the Vietnam war. Most of them are middle-aged or older, and most of them are Christians of mixed ages.
Unfortunately, there are several hundred other people out there who really are not terribly interested in peace. The spokesman for one part of the mob, after a particularly violent struggle witnessed by my assistant, stated that he was not being allowed to exercise his right to choose to be arrested, and that was the aim of the bulk of them - to get arrested. This fellow was infuriated that the police were not reacting more strongly. To use the words he used, the fact that the cops could not be dragged into arguments and were simply picking them up and placing them back on the footpath was driving quite a few of these people absolutely mad.
My assistant saw small children, aged between two and five, wandering around dirty, half-dressed, crying and lost, chewing pieces of bread, and with paint daubed all over them. One lost little five-year-old boy came up to a policeman and asked him to help find his mum. The policeman attempted to help him and was called away because a part of the mob was breaking through. There was a two-year-old sitting, crying, about 10 feet away from a violent struggle. One pregnant woman said to my assistant that she had been pushed by the police. She was about eight months pregnant, but unfortunately she was also in the front line at the time, having a go at police.
Police have been behaving with exceptional restraint there, Mr Speaker. One incident I heard of was that police had a hamburger run and were given some hamburgers at about 2 o'clock this morning. Several of the police officers
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