Page 4330 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Connolly: You are putting the restaurant industry at some risk here because the public will think there is no power to control rotting food.
MR MOORE: Mr Connolly suggests that there is some terrible urgency to get this through tonight because rotting food is going to cause us a huge problem and so forth. This obviously has been a low priority for this Government since they first started to deal with it. It seems to me that we have not had a specific problem with this issue. This legislation, even with this amendment, if it is carried, will tighten up the situation as it is now. If the Government decides to come back we will be able to deal with it then. Madam Speaker, the suggestion that some offence is likely to be committed in the future really is difficult to maintain.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (8.55): I am glad that Mr Moore has been able to come to a so-called in-depth assessment of what the Government is on about without having first listened to the Government, but there you go. Let us put aside the issue of the move-on powers, for a start. The exercise of the move-on power depends on a state of mind of a police officer.
Mr Humphries: It does here too.
MR BERRY: Hang on a minute. This is about the presentation of very clear evidence which demonstrates that there is a need to protect the public health. As Mr Connolly rightly interjected, this does put at risk public health. It also would raise questions in the community about the ability of public health officers to deal with the matter. There is no question about that. Some examples have been provided to the Opposition and to the Independents which might be those about which officers would be concerned. For example, food like salt will absorb moisture when kept in the open. When stored in a galvanised bin it will also absorb zinc coatings from the bin. If one went to a restaurant and there was salt held in a container like that and evidence gathered in the restaurant or place where food was sold indicated that in the normal course of events that salt was used in food which was for sale to the community, then - - -
Mrs Carnell: There are very long bows in there.
Mr De Domenico: What a great example!
MR BERRY: You can laugh. Zinc poisoning is a silly matter, according to the Opposition.
Mrs Carnell: The health inspector would say, "Please get that out of that and put it somewhere else".
MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell interjects that the health officer would say, "Please get that out of the container". If the proprietor says, "No, I am not going to, because that is the way we have always done it and I have never seen anybody stagger out of this place poisoned", then, on reasonable grounds, the officer can act, according to this legislation. If he has not acted on reasonable grounds there is a defence. Very clearly, in the legislation, reasonable grounds are required before one acts. Mrs Carnell sits there with a grin on her face, laughing about zinc poisoning. It is very funny for the Liberals.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .