Page 3902 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Cornwell, it is a valiant attempt; but our standing orders protect our own members, not the ones on the hill. I am afraid that I will have to let that one pass.
Mr Cornwell: Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your guidance. I will make use of it in future.
MR MOORE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Is it not wonderful to see Liberals jumping to the defence of their close colleagues?
Mr Cornwell: Colleagues.
MR MOORE: "Their close colleagues", I said. Self-defence is an issue that is appropriately raised in dealing with this Bill and I will be interested to hear the Minister's response. This Bill is such a complicated Bill that it took us a quite long time to assess its ramifications, Madam Speaker, having, apart from the business side of the Bill, two lines to consider, namely:
A person shall not fight with another person in a public place.
Penalty: $1,000.
Mr Connolly: Yes; 12 words, in fact.
MR MOORE: Thank you. Yes, 12 words. I think it is appropriate that we respond to those requests from the police for a method to deal with violence in Civic in particular. I think this is a quite reasonable way of going about that and I congratulate the Minister for his quick response to this issue.
MS SZUTY (8.19): Madam Speaker, there has been much debate in recent years about the control of offensive and assaultative behaviour by people, especially in Civic. I am sure no-one would disagree with the view that the mixture of alcohol and aggression often leads to incidents that seriously affect the lives of those people who suffer injury and those people who subsequently appear before the courts charged with offences in relation to incidents of violence. While many people in the community once thought it was honourable to step outside to sort out differences, and some people still do, I believe that the emphasis in the late twentieth century should be on defusing situations that may lead to violence. In that vein, some deterrent must be placed in front of people who would seek to use violence against others.
I agree with my colleague, Mr Moore, that the move-on powers introduced by the Alliance Government in the First Assembly have not been effective in preventing violence from occurring in our community. In the rhetoric that surrounded the introduction of the move-on powers and from the reports I have received since becoming a member of this Assembly, it appears that they can unfairly target groups of young people. Yet most of the incidents of violence that have resulted in serious injury and death appear to have involved younger and older adults and not teenagers. This is somewhat ironic.
I believe that the Government is placing the correct emphasis on individual responsibility for action in proposing this amendment Bill rather than attempting to assess some potential threat posed by any particular group within a community. In making it an offence to fight in a public place, the Assembly, in passing this law, will again be putting forward a community standard.
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