Page 2151 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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MR STEVENSON (9.03): The Chief Minister suggested that she knew what the words on the scratch tickets meant. She said that most people would understand. I cannot comment on that one way or the other; but let me tell you of an interesting situation, and there are many like it under the law. How many of you have checked your vehicle speedometer to make sure that when it is reading 100 kilometres an hour you are actually doing 100 kilometres an hour? There is one hand up. Now there are two. Okay. I know that there is a small percentage. The point is that most prudent motorists do not do that. Most prudent motorists do not check their speedometer at all, let alone regularly. The reason why some people might check it is that they have heard of someone being reported in the past, or they know that speedometers can read incorrectly. I suggest to you that most people have no idea that their vehicle speedometer can show that they are doing 100 kilometres an hour when they are doing 115 kilometres an hour or whatever.
Mr De Domenico: I just stick to cruise control.
MR STEVENSON: Exactly. That is what most people think. What happens under the law? Does that help you? Madam Speaker, it is a little bit hard to - - -
Mr Lamont: Hear yourself talk?
MR STEVENSON: No; I just do not want to kick the volume up any louder. I thought I would get the noise down a bit so that I would not have to raise the volume.
Mr Berry: We would like you to be relevant.
MR STEVENSON: What is not relevant about the fact that most people would not know that, yet it is no defence under the law? The law is the law. The fact that it is not commonly known, and indeed not commonly known by many police, the very people who are supposed to uphold it, does not matter because the law is the law. You might not like the argument, but your Chief Minister is saying, "I knew what was supposed to happen with scratchies, and everybody else did". That is not true.
The Chief Minister mentioned earlier in regard to a similar matter that if people did not complain about the problem it was not really relevant. It is like saying to someone who has committed a crime that they did not commit the crime; but, later on, if caught, saying that they committed a crime in the past. It is a similar thing. It is a fair analogy.
Mr Lamont: What?
MR STEVENSON: I will explain it to you separately later, David. Come and see me.
Amendment agreed to.
Bill as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
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