Page 5590 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 4 December 1991
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Of course, they do present a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if we think that some developer will need to be inspected and that power of entry, search warrants and power of search and inspection will need to be granted to a panel - which may be a single person, do not forget - then I suppose that needs to be tempered with the fact that this can be turned back the other way as well. It may well be that these powers can be applied to a group like, for example, the Belconnen Community Council's Planning Committee. They may well find that all of their notes are taken. If they attempt to contravene the panel, then they are up for either $5,000 or imprisonment for six months.
Having dealt with planning matters and having dealt with this sort of issue for some years, I cannot, for the life of me, think of any piece of information that I may have that somebody would want to take for benefit that would result in a prison sentence, in any prison sentence. It is most extraordinary and most inappropriate.
Mr Collaery: Yes; you cannot be put in prison for debt any more, Michael.
MR MOORE: I cannot be imprisoned for debt. I am glad Mr Collaery mentioned that. On the other hand, if I refuse to provide some of the leaked documents that have come to me over the years in terms of planning appeals, I may well find myself in prison because they might in some way identify the officer who had leaked them to me. I think, therefore, Mr Speaker, that these clauses need to be rejected. They are entirely inappropriate.
Should a panel of this nature need to be convened, if there really is a problem of this nature, there is a facility to do it under the Inquiries Act or under the Royal Commissions Act. It is a decision of the Assembly, of course. It seems to me that there is simply no need for somebody to have to seek a warrant which can specify a particular hour during which an entry is authorised at any time of the day or night. If I want to be colourful I can certainly conjure up great pictures of an SS uniform with the SS removed and PP in a nice italic form in its place - the same sort of italic form that the Residents Rally used perhaps - the PP being the planning police. What could be achieved by that?
On the other side of the coin, Mr Speaker, should the panel decide that they want to get information from the developer they can say, "If you do not want to provide the information, your development does not go ahead". It is a much easier way than threatening somebody with a $5,000 fine or a six-month imprisonment penalty. I urge members to look very seriously at these three clauses and try to determine whether we really need them. I believe that we do not.
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