Page 3488 - Week 13 - Thursday, 26 November 1992
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Mr Connolly: It is voluntary, not coercive.
Mr Moore: Those are the exact words - "a voluntary rather than coercive nature".
Mr Kaine: Madam Speaker, I think that Mrs Carnell is trying to make a very important point. It is not trivial, and I think that the Minister and the Government would do well to listen to it instead of engaging in some across-the-floor debate.
MADAM SPEAKER: I remind everyone again of standing orders 39 and 61, both of which require silence and no interruptions. Would Mrs Carnell please continue.
MRS CARNELL: I firmly believe that the Government should have dealt with recommendation No. 2 before enshrining coded notification. We should not in any case uncritically accept recommendations from this intergovernmental committee's legal working party, endorsed though they might have been by the Australian Health Ministers Conference. The document, despite having all the intimidating airs and graces of a government report, deserves some criticism. I am talking about this report only because the Government has used it as the basis for its change in regulations.
I think that it should be made quite clear, before anyone leaps into saying that the recommendation for notification is the final word, that this report has lots of other recommendations in it. A closer examination of some other recommendations quickly shows that there are quite a few that many of us would not agree with, and that many in the Government would not agree with either. For instance, recommendation 6.3 entitled "HIV/AIDS and sex work" says:
There should be no special offences for sex workers, brothel operators or owners of premises used for prostitution where a sex worker is HIV-infected.
Quite seriously, that is just what we did last week. Contrary to this recommendation, we have just introduced prostitution legislation which does incorporate such offences.
Mr Moore: Keep reading. Read the rest of it.
MRS CARNELL: You can do that in your speech.
Mr Moore: I will.
MRS CARNELL: Those offences are for public health reasons. Moreover, it is quite clear that here in the ACT we will not tolerate a situation where HIV infected workers remain in a brothel. So, we can already see one recommendation most people would not agree with.
Mr De Domenico: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: I am finding it very difficult to hear what Mrs Carnell has to say, because of this - - -
Mr Moore: The irony of you raising this point of order!
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, with the greatest of respect, when I was about to call members to order it was a member of your own side who was actually talking.
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