Page 2680 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 October 1992
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Mr Cornwell: Are you going to deny them employment, Mr Connolly?
MR CONNOLLY: No. There is the old maxim "It takes a thief to catch a thief". Maybe a reformed person could offer some constructive comments in relation to security. It does seem that this is an industry where there is concern. I have discussed the matter with the Australian Federal Police. They have concerns because they often have to deal with the results of assaults on individuals by people who are employed as bouncers. They also have some concerns at the burgeoning size of the local security industry and the fact that a number of people in the security industry do, for example, make application to carry firearms around the community.
The New South Wales Government a couple of years ago did legislate in this area, in particular in relation to controlling bouncers in the Sydney city area. We are unregulated. I think that is an area which could put some ACT citizens at risk. We are consulting with industry at the moment and the department is preparing some policy options for me. They will be carried through the government process in the ordinary way. In due course I will come back to this Assembly, perhaps, with a proposal for stand-alone legislation, or less rigorous measures to control this industry under, for example, a code of practice under the Fair Trading Act, which this Assembly will be debating probably next week. At the moment the matter is under active review and I will come back to the Assembly with a result of that consultative process.
MR STEVENSON: I have a brief supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Mr Connolly mentioned that the area is licensed in New South Wales. If there is going to be a licensed situation in the ACT, would he be good enough to take on board some solution to the problem of people requiring two licences to operate in the ACT and Queanbeyan or other close parts of New South Wales?
MR CONNOLLY: The avoiding of duplication of licences is a sensible policy initiative. Indeed, the Chief Minister this morning introduced the landmark piece of legislation to deal with this at a national level. Yes, that is a very sensible thing to bear in mind.
Traineeships
MR LAMONT: My question is to the Minister for Education and Training. Minister, I understand that yesterday morning you attended a breakfast in relation to traineeships in the ACT at which the principal speaker was Kim Beazley. There were a number of statistics discussed at that breakfast in relation to the take-up rates of traineeships in the public and private sectors. Mr Beazley described some of those statistics as disappointing. Would you please comment in relation to the extent to which those statistics are disappointing?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I noted Mr Beazley's remarks as they appeared in the paper today, and I also took a copy of his speech with me yesterday. He is correct in the sense that he relates those quarters' figures. The figure from the September quarter last year of 101 new trainees was reduced to 67 in the September quarter of this year. If we take a year's perspective, the longer perspective, in fact traineeships have increased in the ACT over the full year.
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