Page 3900 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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The police have argued, I think fairly strongly, that there needs to be the capacity to have this kind of offence within their armoury, and for that reason it ought to be there. I think, Madam Speaker, that we can support legislation which restores it.
I have great confidence in the police of this town, that they will use powers of this kind with great responsibility. I do not believe that police in the ACT are going to abuse this power. Certainly, a person who is involved in a fight might have the defence of saying that he or she was assaulted by somebody else; but in those circumstances I am quite confident, Madam Speaker, particularly if the police can see clear evidence of what the person has said, that the police would proceed on a charge of assault against the person that the other person claimed had assaulted him or her. In those circumstances this kind of general offence, this sort of unspecified offence, would not be used. But where no such person comes forward it is obviously appropriate to have a general power to deal with street fighting.
In the brief time available to me I have consulted with a number of parties interested in this sort of thing. I believe that the Bill has support. In the circumstances it would need to be watched and its use monitored. I hope that in due course the Minister will advise the Assembly of the number of prosecutions launched under this piece of legislation, and how many were successful. Madam Speaker, I believe that the Bill does provide us with a small but positive answer to the very serious problems of street violence in our town at the present time, and for that reason it has the full support of the Liberal Party.
MR MOORE (8.12): Madam Speaker, I think we have to get things a little into perspective. The recent increase in violence in Civic occurs with a very small number of people. I must say that there is a certain amount of beat-up associated with the violence, in terms of - - -
Mr De Domenico: Yes, a lot of beat-up.
Mr Cornwell: An unfortunate choice of words.
MR MOORE: It was quite deliberate. The beat-up is not only part and parcel of what goes on in the fighting, but also part and parcel of what is going on with some conservative elements of our society, not the least of which are members of the Liberal Party.
Madam Speaker, I also will support this Bill, but I have some doubts which I will raise and which we will deal with. The question, I guess, that many of us consider is that we have to watch different impacts on our liberty by any piece of legislation. I remember Gary Humphries standing in this chamber on many occasions, supporting the Bill Stefaniak move-on powers and pointing out the great difference it was going to make and how the police would need these powers; that they would be able to use them constantly and it would be the end of difficulties. They could just tell people to move on and it would stop fighting. Now we are being told, "Well, thanks for those powers, but that is not enough. It did not work, so give us some more power". The police, in speaking to the Select Committee on Drugs last week or the week before last, ran through a whole range of what I guess could best be described as their wish list in terms of the powers that they would like to have. They were quite extensive and there is no doubt that they would make the job of the police much easier. To the vast majority of citizens that would seem to make the job of the police easier.
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