Page 4705 - Week 15 - Thursday, 16 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Also, if I heard the radio correctly, he indicated that some facility would be established in the Civic area in the near future. I might be wrong about that, but that seemed to be the impression that came out of this process.
I think it is unfortunate when we get to the stage that the committee is operating in the context of political debate at the same time as it is considering these issues. It would be better if the Assembly resolved as a whole, indeed unanimously, to refer certain issues to committees and if, to the maximum extent possible, those issues were left to the committees to deal with for that period of time. Perhaps that is idealistic. It seems to me, Madam Speaker, that not leaving matters to committees makes the task of those committees much more difficult. The comments I make here could apply to some extent to the debate on the issue of unsworn statements in courts. I think the report is a valuable one, notwithstanding my dissenting comments, and it will provide a good focus for debate on this issue in the coming years.
MRS GRASSBY (11.47): Madam Speaker, I would like it made very clear that before the Attorney-General made the statement referred to by Mr Humphries I had felt that bringing in a law against young people was not the right way to go. I would like that put on the record. I can see Mr Humphries's point that he was unhappy about the fact that we thought his Bill should not go ahead, but I firmly believe that the Bill was a mistake. My argument is: Why have a fine if you cannot collect it? That is really what it is all about. It is about not being able to collect the fine. The Cyclists Rights Action Group were the first to make this point when they came to see us. The report states:
While the Bill was intended to deter irresponsible behaviour by minors, it would be ineffective against this age group.
I agree. Paragraph 4.10 of the report states:
The Committee pursued the question of whether the main role of legislation of this nature was actually to apprehend people and fine them or whether such legislation was simply to empower police -
and that is the important part -
to request young people not to carry out those activities in public places.
To me, if you have a law such as that, then you must be able to fine people. We all know that it is very difficult to fine somebody whizzing by on a skateboard. A policeman may pull someone up and say, "We are going to fine you. What is your name and what is your address?". The person may say that his name is John Smith and say that he lives in some street in Dickson. You can forget that. Recently we saw how difficult it was for the police to find those young "gentlemen" who did a most dreadful thing to a lady in the shopping centre. It would be very difficult to fine skateboarders. I believe that a Bill such as this is definitely out of the question. It is Mr Humphries's right to introduce the Bill he introduced, and I will defend his right to do that; but I will also defend my right to speak very strongly against that Bill.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .