Page 1961 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 June 1994
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Mr Deputy Speaker, the ACT is the last jurisdiction in Australia to take on this initiative, and I doubt that we have been the wisest. In fact, I believe that we have been the most foolish in having delayed this important question for so very long. Mr Lamont, the Minister, has said, "The Government is proceeding to do this kind of thing anyway; so why the need for this motion?". The question is whether we believe that the Government will proceed to make this decision off its own bat, or whether it needs to be encouraged by the Assembly.
I remind members that it was at about this time three years ago that the Attorney-General confidently promised the people of the ACT that a pubcard, by whatever name, would be introduced imminently to ensure that there would be a means of preventing people under the age of 18 from obtaining access to alcohol. There was no qualification, at that time, on that promise. It was a simple promise made on the radio, as I recall, in the course of a debate with me about legal issues and justice issues. Mr Connolly made that unequivocal commitment. That commitment has not been honoured in the last three years. It is high time that it was honoured and we, therefore, support the passage of this motion to make it clear that we believe that it should be honoured soon, not just because an election is in the offing once again.
The Government said today that it wanted to see what the youth said about this matter before it proceeds. It wanted the support of the youth sector. Ms Szuty indicated, fairly clearly, that the work that her committee did in this area shows that the youth sector has always supported this kind of measure. It has always supported responsible ways of providing for access to alcohol because those who are over the age of 18 do not believe that their rights should be curtailed or that their access should be damaged by having under-age access as well. They realise that there is a responsible issue here that they need to support. Those under the age of 18, for the most part, also accept that it is appropriate that the law be enforced, just as proof of your identity is an important element in obtaining all sorts of rights in our community, from getting a drivers licence, to opening a bank account, to getting a passport. All those things carry some requirement to prove who you are and what your age is. This requirement is no different.
What the Minister did not say to us today was how much arm-twisting has been going on to get the youth network, the Chief Minister's Youth Advisory Council, to agree to this measure. We know that the Government felt that it was at a disadvantage by not being able to honour Mr Connolly's promise. We know that considerable pressure was placed on the Youth Advisory Council to get them to change their mind about this matter. We know that there was always a substantial minority of that council prepared to support a pubcard, but there was a majority - a slim majority, as I understand it - of members who were opposed to the idea. That indicates, in my view, the clear danger with a government being beholden to particular interest groups in the community and, by being so, failing to acknowledge - - -
Mr Connolly: You do not consult; you are beholden to interest groups. We cannot win on this.
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