Page 4670 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 15 December 1993
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the path that he has suggested, will regret the day because one evening, working late in the night in his office, he will have called for some takeaway food and he will taste something a bit odd. He will say, "Gee, I am not sure. I am just not sure". If that food inspector had been at the front gate he would have been able to prevent that doubt. Ms Szuty, do not be swayed by those shallow arguments. This is a serious issue about public health. I know, despite all the laughter, that you recognise the very serious issue that I am talking about. I now call upon Mr Moore, having heard my comments, to reverse his position.
MR HUMPHRIES (5.06): I think it is worth contrasting the situation that the police face in these circumstances. We are giving to these people powers equivalent to powers that might be exercised by police in certain circumstances. As I understand it - and I am not the Minister for police, yet - police in our Territory operate on the basis that they usually do seek a warrant before they enter premises. That is the operating procedure on which they work. There are certain circumstances, as I understand it, where police are able to enter premises notwithstanding the lack of a warrant. It is usually in a situation where a crime is in the process of being committed, a car chase has ensued, and someone runs into a house. They are entitled to rush into the house afterwards and deal with it.
Mr Kaine: In hot pursuit.
MR HUMPHRIES: In hot pursuit; in that sort of situation. Is that really comparable to something like the circumstances that might apply under this legislation? No, of course it is not. Can you imagine the health inspector walking down a street or sitting in his car and suddenly seeing people from the restaurant loading crates labelled chihuahua chow mein into the back of their truck? So off they go and off goes the health inspector after them in his car. They pull in to the house and in rushes the health inspector.
Mr Connolly: As you know, precisely that situation has occurred in the ACT.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Connolly says, "Precisely that situation has occurred". To be quite frank with you, I am sure that that was the once in a century occasion. I think, Madam Speaker, that if an occasion like that has taken place in the ACT we are probably safe and it will not happen again in the lifetime of anyone in this place. The fact of life is that those sorts of things do not happen. In the vast majority of cases health inspectors are able to and should obtain warrants before they enter premises. I think that to give them powers, in effect, greater than the powers enjoyed by police is just not right.
Obviously, when someone has run into premises after committing a crime, or there is a rape or something like that going on inside the premises, or an offence going on, police have to have the power to enter without a warrant. That is a very important point. But how often is that going to occur in similar circumstances in respect of this kind of offence? Someone carving up or jointing a dog which is to go to a restaurant and be served is an offence of a kind very unlikely to be seen. They are hardly likely to be jointing the dog out in the backyard where everyone can see, are they? The fact is that in most cases the health inspector is going to have been tipped off. He is going to be told, "There is some hanky-panky going on in these premises. Go and inspect it".
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