Page 1228 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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Madam Speaker, the explanatory memorandum for this Bill is little better. It goes into only slightly more detail than the presentation speech and leaves a great many important questions hanging. I think that that is a great regret. The most regrettable thing from my point of view is the lack of consultation that underpins this Bill coming forward. If its passage had been fully canvassed, carefully argued and properly discussed in that sector of the community which will be affected by the changes in this Bill, then there would not be the problem of not explaining it in detail when it was presented; but that has not been done.
This Bill was a bombshell when it hit the sporting community of the ACT. Certainly people involved in kick boxing had no idea that it was coming forward. Certainly those involved in other martial arts who have serious concerns about the impact of this Bill had no idea that the Bill was coming forward. I suspect that even those involved in boxing in the ACT had the entire affair come as a great surprise to them.
Mr Berry: It is in the election promises, mate.
MR HUMPHRIES: Here we have it again: "We said something during the election campaign and that gives us carte blanche to do what we want". The fact is that the electorate did not elect this Government to do everything it wants to do without proper consultation and without proper regard to what needs to be done in the way of talking to the community to see whether these changes can be achieved. There was no consultation about this Bill. No kick boxing enthusiasts in the Territory, for example, were properly forewarned. It has to be asked: Why were these people not allowed to put a case for the preservation of their sport? They have put a case. They put a case to us and, indeed, to other members of the Assembly who were prepared to listen to them. Included among those were not, apparently, government members.
It was, in our view, clearly incumbent upon the Government, before introducing legislation making those who participate in this sport criminals - and that is what we are talking about - to demonstrate that there was something wrong with kick boxing in this Territory. But they have not done it - not on the floor of this Assembly, not in the media, not in the public domain, not privately around tables to the people who are representing these sports. I ask the Minister: When and how did he propose to explain to this community why he was taking up this particular issue in this way? Not only has this Government succeeded in doing nothing to explain this particular position to the community; it has not even tried.
There is another serious problem, in our view, Madam Speaker. Even leaving to one side the question of whether kick boxing is or is not a good thing to have going on in this community, there is, in our view, a very serious flaw in the way that the Bill has been drafted. This matter has been brought to the attention of the Minister, but he persistently refuses to consider any argument to do with drafting. I draw members' attention to clause 20 of the Bill, the clause which purports to ban kick boxing. I read that clause:
A person shall not, without reasonable excuse, engage or participate in a boxing contest in which a foot or any other part of the leg of a contestant may be used to strike his or her opponent.
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