Page 5296 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
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prime example the following imaginary situation. You see an advertisement in the paper saying, "Would you like to join the Tharwa Golf Club? Chinese Jews need not apply". Obviously, that is the sort of thing that needs to be investigated. It should not be up to the commissioner himself to initiate such an investigation. He will have staff - they are called troops - to do the legwork.
Mr Stevenson knows that such circumstances exist. According to his reasoning, the Commissioner of Taxation, sitting in the building opposite, would be the person who had to check every tax form that was returned to the Government. Such a situation is clearly ridiculous, and Mr Stevenson knows it.
Amendment negatived.
Clause agreed to.
Clauses 117 to 119 taken together
MR STEVENSON (5.51): Mr Speaker, I move:
Clause 119, page 45, line 28, omit "5", substitute "2".
Clause 119 refers to penalties imposed on corporations and says:
... the penalty that the court may impose is a fine not exceeding 5 times the maximum amount that, but for this section, the court could impose as a pecuniary penalty for that offence.
I think that five times is too large an amount to give to a commissioner outside a court. Therefore, I have moved that the 5 be replaced with a 2.
MR DUBY (5.52): Surely Mr Stevenson must have read a little bit of legislation throughout his career as an Assembly member. In most legislation, if it is a fine of $1,000 for members of the public, it is generally $5,000 for a corporate body; if it is $2,000 for members of the public, it is $10,000 for a corporate body. It seems to be a standard ratio.
Mr Connolly: Because members of the public can be gaoled and corporations cannot. For the most serious offence, the citizen goes to gaol.
MR DUBY: Absolutely. As the Attorney has pointed out, members of the public can be gaoled, and corporate bodies cannot. Apart from anything else, it is only commonsense, Mr Stevenson, to keep that ratio which applies in other legislation throughout the Territory in place in this legislation.
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