Page 1650 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
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MR HUMPHRIES: You keep saying that it is a maximum penalty, but if it does attract the worst possible case - - -
Mr Connolly: It is like the little boy and the peach - 10 years' imprisonment.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it is not like the little boy and the peach. It is the other extreme. We are talking about maximum penalties. Are you going to put to me the circumstances where that maximum penalty would apply to a person who was present at a match as much as to the person who organises that match? You put them in the same category of seriousness. I am asking you to explain how you could ever be in the position of having that level of seriousness. Even for somebody who has been found five times at a cockfighting match, a year in gaol is just too much. You tell me how a person in that position warrants a year in gaol.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (12.13): Madam Speaker, in this, as in a lot of activities, it is those people who come and bet and pay and support who ensure that the events go on. We have to discourage that sort of activity. The point, too, is that the Opposition is acting in terms of that leaked document from ACIL. They are trying to find something that will separate them from us and then carry on indefinitely. There is an answer on every occasion to what may be raised by the people over there, but I am not going to facilitate or encourage their filibuster and give the logical answer. We are going to act responsibly and sensibly, but I am not going to get up on every little point that a member over there raises.
Amendments negatived.
Clauses agreed to.
Clause 18
MR WESTENDE (12.15), by leave: I move:
Page 10, subclause (1), lines 6 and 7, omit the subclause.
Page 10, subclause (2), line 9, omit "$10,000 or imprisonment for 1 year, or both", substitute "$2,500".
Once again, it is a matter of the fine. We have spoken extensively on this. Just to prove to the Government that we are not filibustering but are genuinely concerned, I will not elaborate any further. We believe that the $10,000 fine should be $2,500. Clause 18 states in part:
A person shall not promote, conduct or take part in a rodeo.
... ... ...
A person shall not promote or conduct a game park.
Does that mean that, if the circus comes to Queanbeyan and the Canberra Times or one of the television stations runs an advertisement, they are promoting a game park? Once again, it is an airy-fairy piece of legislation. The Canberra Times or one of the television stations or any other media can be fined $10,000, if this Bill is taken to its extreme. We do not believe that that is appropriate.
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