Page 2055 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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rest of Australia. Madam Speaker, in closing I would like to thank the other committee members for their contribution to this report. They are Ms Helen Szuty, Mr David Lamont, who was discharged from the committee on 19 April, and Mr Wayne Berry, who was appointed to the committee on 19 April. I would particularly like to thank the secretary of the committee, Bill Symington, for the tireless and very capable contribution he made. Without people such as Bill, it would not be possible for the committee to produce such a professional and well-written report. It has been said on many occasions - and I will say it again - that the secretariat of this Assembly has to be one of its great success stories. Madam Speaker, I recommend the report to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Ms Szuty) adjourned.
LEGAL AFFAIRS - STANDING COMMITTEE
Report on Coroners (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1993
MR HUMPHRIES (12.22): Madam Speaker, I present report No. 5 of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs entitled Coroners (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1993, together with extracts from the minutes of proceedings, and I move:
That the report be noted.
Madam Speaker, I will speak briefly to this motion. An exposure draft of the Coroners (Amendment) Bill was introduced by the Attorney-General in June last year - in fact, a year ago tomorrow - to foreshadow changes that the Government proposed to make to coronial proceedings in the ACT. There were two essential elements of this package of legislation. One was the changes to acknowledge or to pick up recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the second was to review the coronial operation of the Coroners Act for the first time, apparently, in the 38 years since the Act was originally put in place. The Legal Affairs Committee resolved to inquire into the exposure draft. When the Bill itself was tabled in the Assembly on 16 December last year, the committee resolved to inquire into that Bill.
Madam Speaker, as I have indicated, there are two main functions of this Bill. In particular, the role of the Bill in putting in place important recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was focused upon. It is worth noting at the outset that historically the ACT, in fact, has a relatively good record on the question of deaths in custody. The committee was able to ascertain that in the last 20 years or so approximately six people died in custody in circumstances that were within the purview of the royal commission. It appears to be the case that, of those six people, none were of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. We, therefore, have a record which is a considerably better one than those of some other jurisdictions in Australia. However, it was, of course, important to acknowledge that we need to put in place measures to make sure that we never have a bad record in the ACT in this respect.
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