Page 3903 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The fight does not need to be of affront to another person, as was the case under the old Police Offences Ordinance 1934, as fighting is in itself enough to constitute the offence. The law also does not discriminate against any particular age group and it will be universally enforced no matter what the public venue and no matter what the ages of the people involved.
Bar owners in and around Canberra's popular entertainment areas may also like to make the effort to ensure that their patrons are aware of the new law and encourage those people who may be showing a tendency to resolve conflicts with their fists to leave before the situation becomes acute. The Attorney-General may wish to elaborate in his closing remarks on how managers and bouncers in nightclubs will be affected by this law and whether the nightclubs in themselves constitute public places. My belief is that they would.
There is also a strong message in this legislation for people who access night-time entertainment in Canberra. Appropriate action can now be taken by police officers in individual incidents where fighting occurs. Apparently, in the past there have been difficulties in identifying the aggressor, in many instances, and also with producing sufficient evidence to secure convictions on charges arising from fights. With the passage of this amendment Bill, these difficulties should be overcome. Of course, there are still charges that can be laid if one person causes actual physical harm to another. The passage of this amendment Bill may mean that many people who become aggressive will be stopped before actual bodily harm occurs.
I would not want my support for this amendment Bill to sound as if I believe that no further assaults will happen in Civic or anywhere else in the ACT. Sadly, this cannot be guaranteed by any amount of legislation. However, my hope is that it will give police officers a better opportunity to intervene in potentially violent and violent incidents at a much earlier stage than has been possible in the past. With any legislation that purports to protect people, review mechanisms must be in place to ensure that the stated objective is being achieved. I would encourage the Attorney-General and the Government to monitor the frequency of charges made under this amendment, as well as the general levels of violence occurring in and around Canberra's nightspots as Mr Humphries has also recommended. If we do this we will demonstrate our interest in positive legislation.
I, too, commend the Government's prompt action in introducing this amendment Bill. Additional moves being taken to improve the physical environment of Civic for all users of the area will also help in the longer term in curbing the incidence of violent crime. The meeting with traders and police officers, referred to by the Attorney-General in his speech, raised a number of other issues concerning the sale and consumption of alcohol, and I look forward to hearing the Attorney-General's comments in regard to these issues at some future time. I note that a group of nightclub and hotel licensees in Melbourne have recently discussed what they call the "West End Code of Practice", the result of which will lead to the banning of a number of the drinking practices in their nightclubs as well as banning promotional alcohol activities.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .