Page 1418 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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Detail Stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole
MR HUMPHRIES (11.45): Madam Speaker, I move:
Page 2, clause 4, line 30, proposed new paragraph 9(3)(a), omit "and", substitute "or".
I do so in order to make it perfectly clear that either arm of this defence is available rather than both arms having to be available to satisfy a court that an offence has not been committed.
Amendment agreed to.
Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
LIQUOR (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
Debate resumed from 1 April 1993, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (11.46): Madam Speaker, the Opposition will be supporting this Bill. This Bill is, I think, in two parts. It is essentially a pre-emptive measure designed to head off before they occur some problems that have been experienced in other places. It is also designed to deal with a recently important problem - I think, in the last few years - of noise pollution generated by licensed premises.
Madam Speaker, in respect of licensed premises, we have seen in the last few years, or the last few months at least, some concern about the safety of some such places. There have been some occasions in respect of, I think, places in New South Wales, not necessarily licensed premises, where there have been some serious accidents. I am aware of balconies collapsing and causing people, including children, serious injury or even, I think on some occasions, death. I think it would be desirable for us to make sure that, if there is any threat of a problem of this kind arising in the ACT, it be dealt with quite soon. This provision does not deal with all premises. It deals specifically with licensed premises. Given that they are places where large numbers of people gather together for entertainment - sometimes they can be extremely crowded, as anybody here who might have been in such a place in recent years would know - and where, historically, disasters of various kinds relating to structural collapse, fire, crushes and so on do sometimes result in certain disasters, we want to avoid that in the ACT by taking pre-emptive measures.
This Bill does that by requiring that occupancy loadings for those premises be set by the Fire Commissioner, that the loading for public places like those in licensed premises be displayed clearly so that people know the acceptable limit in a particular place, and then following that up with a clear capacity for inspectors to come forward and assess that a particular public place might be overcrowded and require that some people have to move out. That capacity to direct the licensees to move people out is a very important one. Although I would expect
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