Page 3412 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 25 November 1992
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varying percentage of the vote we might have achieved at the most recent election. Others, who represent peak organisations such as the Council on the Ageing or the Council of Social Service or union organisations or whatever it might be, represent that constituency. That gives those people both the right to say certain things and the duty to exercise that right in a responsible manner. If that position is abused, we abuse our position and reflect badly on those we represent in our constituency.
We should be quick to indicate that we do not believe the sentiments that were expressed in Dr Tomlinson's poem. I believe that the police of the Australian Capital Territory - the Australian Federal Police - operate at a very high standard. It is a matter of public record that police forces in other States have experienced problems ranging from minor misdemeanours of various sorts to full-scale corruption. That is not a revelation of any startling impact in the present environment. But I will say that the Australian Federal Police have maintained a standard that is considerably higher than those that have operated on occasions in other State police forces. We are extremely lucky that we have a police force of the high standard we enjoy in the ACT. We should cherish that high standard. We should commend the police for their capacity to maintain those standards and help them, through cooperation, to build on that good record. We do nothing to assist that standard's maintenance or the high repute in which the police are held by letting poems of the kind that is before us today go uncommented upon.
It would be foolish to assert that there has never been any corruption of any kind in, for example, the Australian Federal Police. It would be foolish to assert that no policeman has ever assaulted a person in the Australian Capital Territory in circumstances that were not warranted. Those things are true in a very limited sense. It is equally true to say that there have been politicians in the past - not necessarily in the Australian Capital Territory - who have acted improperly. There are public servants who have acted improperly. Whether that constitutes a symptom or a characteristic of those people that is typical of that class of person is another matter. I would say to the Assembly that it is clearly the case that exceptions here prove the rule. I am not pretending that people in these categories, particularly in the Australian Federal Police, are perfect; but I believe that to make the assertions that are made in this poem reflects in an unwarranted way on the vast majority of police, and the assertions ought to be repudiated by this Assembly.
I will say no more than that, other than to urge the Assembly to pass this motion on the basis, most importantly, that it affirms our confidence in the high standards that are set by police in the Territory and our belief that we can build on those high standards by working with the police to maintain a high level of integrity, free of the taints and problems that have plagued police forces in other States, and to ensure that the quality of servicing we get from ACT police is second to none in Australia.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.01): The Government supports this motion. When this poem was first brought to my attention, it was condemned immediately in the most vigorous terms. I said at the time that I personally and most members on this side of the house have a lot of respect for Dr Tomlinson in his role in ACTCOSS as the champion of the underdog. The work he does in the
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