Page 4659 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 15 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Connolly: As you see, they do it anyway. They have just done it.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is not what that memo says, I do not think, Mr Connolly.
Mr Connolly: Yes, it does. It says, "Health officers seize and destroy and no power to do so" - a truck full of meat and meat products.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Connolly appears to be recalcitrant, Madam Speaker. I would again say, "Let him produce evidence of any jurisdiction, or any part of any jurisdiction, any shire or borough or anything like that, where this particular practice he proposes for the Food Act of the ACT is followed". It has been a week since we began this debate and you have not produced any evidence of any of the assertions you have made. Nor, might I say, Madam Speaker, is there any evidence of the assertion that the practice of seizing goods which will be used to commit an offence in the future has been the practice in the ACT. It has not, to the best of our endeavours, ever been the case in the ACT, and certainly is not now.
Madam Speaker, I take it that what was said by the Minister was said in good faith; that he was relying on advice. The advice, with respect, is not good advice. I think that the Assembly is well advised to look this particular proposal in the mouth and say to itself that there are better ways, such as the kinds Mr Moore referred to in his comments, of dealing with this problem than the method proposed by the Government.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.23): I thank members for their support for this amendment. I think it is important that we do not give more power than is needed to any public servant, or to anybody else for that matter. I think that we really will be stepping in the right direction. I was fascinated by the debate last week. I want to quote some of the things that were said. Mr Berry suggested that passing this amendment would mean that we were going to poison people. There were comments about people dying in the streets. There were comments that we would be setting the ACT back - - -
Mr Lamont: Listening to another one of your speeches, Mrs Carnell?
MRS CARNELL: They were all in Mr Connolly's speech, except for one from Mr Berry that we were actually poisoning people. Mr Connolly suggested that absolutely - - -
Mr Moore: "Hyperbole" is the word you are looking for, Kate.
MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Moore. You are always terribly helpful. There is one thing that I would like to put right, though, Madam Speaker. Mr Connolly, in his speech, suggested that the AHA, the restaurant association and so on also supported the Government's stance on this. That is simply not the truth, Madam Speaker.
Mr Connolly: No. What you have said is simply not the truth. You are quite right.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .