Page 6153 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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Mr Collaery: Perhaps I should assist the house with some comments on that. I believe that the Attorney is making some rather exaggerated comments about this matter. This does not promise everyone the right to a transcript. He is debating the substantive issue before he speaks to his point of order. Standing order 181 says:
An amendment may be moved to any part of the bill, provided it is within the title or relevant to the subject matter of the bill, and otherwise conforms with the standing orders.
Mr Speaker, we set a precedent the other day.
Mr Moore: Oh! You do the right thing!
Mr Connolly: I agreed because you approached me in advance, and we said that we would waive the standing order.
Mr Collaery: Mr Speaker, if Mr Connolly and his sycophant beside him will let me get on with it, I need to address the point of order.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Collaery, I would ask you to withdraw the last comment.
Mr Collaery: I withdraw the fact that I said that Mr Moore is a sycophant. Mr Speaker, the Magistrates Court (Amendment) Bill (No. 3), which is before the house today, refers, among other things, to committal to prison where final costs are not paid. The parking or traffic infringements in the Motor Traffic Act are substantial; they relate to common carriers and all manner of commercially related dealings. A person may take the matter on issue in the court. The purpose of this amendment is to guarantee those small traders the right to have the Attorney consider whether they should be given a transcript.
The amendment seeks to overcome a situation, about which I have received many representations from within the legal profession, that defendants who do not have sufficient funds cannot get a copy of the transcript to hand it to a solicitor to appeal a matter because, at $8.50 a page, sometimes the costs are thousands of dollars, as indeed they are for the Legal Aid Office. Not everyone is eligible for legal aid. This amendment could well relate to people who are being committed to prison, or who would be but for this new regime, for defending a case in this matter.
Mr Speaker, if there is any doubt about the matter I would ask, with great respect, that you err on the side of generosity in your interpretation because the matter relates to situations that do involve traffic offences at times - not all of those offences would do it. This is an important issue of civil liberties involving defendants.
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