Page 4667 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 15 December 1993
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if the health officer believes on reasonable grounds that the circumstances are of such seriousness and urgency as to require immediate entry to the premises without the authority of a warrant.
This is a last resort. This has happened in respect of gas and animals this year. It was all right in relation to those - - -
Mr Humphries: I think it was last year, was it not, that we passed those laws?
MR BERRY: Whenever it was, you passed them. You passed them in relation to gas and animals because they are matters of importance. This is a matter of importance because it relates to the health of the community. Mrs Carnell claims to be a health spokesperson for the Liberals and it makes her look fairly shallow, but that would not be difficult. Madam Speaker, this issue, whilst it will not undo the legislation forever, will weaken the health officers' powers. They are powers that, I think, are reasonable in the circumstances. I think the community will accept that there has been no particular opposition to these powers. It will result in a weakness, but not one that would result in the very good and very effective food legislation put forward by this Labor Government being rendered unusable. It is legislation that is effective, but it will be less effective as a result of this amendment.
MS SZUTY (4.54): I believe that the Assembly has approached the question of entering premises without a warrant in the same way as the previous amendment. Following a discussion I had with Mr Connolly in this Assembly last week I decided to write to Parliamentary Counsel to see whether we could come up with an amendment which would strengthen the wording of proposed paragraph 19YB(1)(d) to make it absolutely clear that only in circumstances of really grave seriousness and urgency would immediate entry to the premises without the authority of a warrant be permitted. The advice that I received back from Parliamentary Counsel on the matter was:
I have not provided you with such a draft as the dictionary meaning of "grave" -
which I had sought to insert in that paragraph -
indicates that it would be a tautology to use it in conjunction with the word "seriousness". Your proposed amendment is also not necessary because paragraph 19YB(1)(d) does not involve just an abstract test of "seriousness and urgency", the health officer must believe that the "circumstances are of such seriousness and urgency as to require immediate entry".
The advice was:
That legal test will satisfy your objective of the need for a heightened degree of seriousness before an officer may move without a warrant.
Madam Speaker, legislation that I presented to this Assembly earlier this year on the power of dog inspectors to seize dogs without a warrant following attacks on people was something that I believed in very strongly to protect the citizens of Canberra. On reflection, after considering Mrs Carnell's amendments, I will not support it on this occasion because I believe that there are grounds where the authority of a warrant should not be needed on health issues.
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