Page 5497 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 4 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
DR KINLOCH (11.47): I recognise Mr Moore's right to make moral judgments. We all have the right to make moral judgments, and he has done so. He has described the legislation presently on the book as bad legislation. It is his right to do that. I accept the moral statement he makes. He is also making a moral judgment in taking the attitudes he takes towards prostitution. That is his right and he should argue that, and the members of that committee should argue it. Similarly, others of us with different points of view have the right to put that point of view. I ask Mr Moore to refer again to Professor Eileen Byrne's paper about the problems of brothels and prostitution in Queensland. It is a very fine piece of work and it should be seen, it should be recognised, it should be taken into account.
I am sorry to hear our colleagues in the Liberal Party say that the legislation is acceptable. We are in a difficulty - Mr Moore knows how our discussions go on. I very much wanted to put a rehabilitation clause in the Bill.
Mr Moore: Why didn't you?
DR KINLOCH: We cannot; it is a money matter. It is not for us to do it. I would like to do it, but I would like it to be done very carefully. I would like to follow through some of the ideas of the Reverend David Oliphant, for example, who sees the need for social concern for the victims of the prostitution industry. That is a moral judgment. It is a judgment that people who are in certain conditions of life are in danger of degradation, either through their physical processes or through their psychological processes. I would want to see the kinds of things that are argued in the New South Wales discussion - at the very least, a rehabilitation board.
I think the Labor Party is very wise to ask us to hold off until we can do all these things. I do not see them playing political games in this matter. I think they have acted wisely in saying that here is something being rushed through without the sorts of caring additions that should be made. Could I ask them to make them? Perhaps by next week the Labor Party could make those, on advice. We would welcome them.
If there were in this Bill an avoidance of the condoning of prostitution, an avoidance of the condoning of state-licensed brothels, if there were in the Bill an attempt to put in something remedial and beneficial and rehabilitative, then I would want to support it. But I do not see those things in this Bill.
So, I come to Mr Moore's strange notion that some of us are interested in being paternalistic and others are interested in civil liberties. This is no time to have an enlarged debate on the nature of government. In the industrial West, most governments in the last 200 years have
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .