Page 4840 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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LIQUOR (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1994
Debate resumed from 1 December 1994, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (4.54): The Opposition does support the legislation that is before us today. We have called for it for a very long time. In fact, we called for this legislation to be in place, in a sense, long before the Government acknowledged that it was necessary.
Madam Speaker, I want to make reference particularly to section 84 of the Liquor Act that is being amended today. Section 84, for members who were not in the First Assembly, was a section introduced into the Liquor Act by the Liberal Party. It was introduced by Mr Stefaniak in 1991 to provide that it would be an offence to consume liquor in certain public places. That was a reform that we introduced. We saw a problem with public drinking. We introduced the legislation in 1991; and it was passed by the Assembly, over the objections of the Labor Government. Mr Connolly said, at that time:
The Labor Government does not support this Bill, because it believes that the Bill is unnecessary.
He went on to argue for quite a few pages - six pages - why he did not wish to have these provisions in the legislation. I know that this is embarrassing for you; but the fact is that what we are seeing today is not, as you might expect from what they said then, an attempt to repeal section 84. On the contrary, this is legislation designed to extend section 84. It now provides that we will have a further operation than that intended by the Liberal Party. Instead of saying that we got it wrong in 1991, we are now told that it did not go far enough. I do not mind, because it is a step in the right direction.
There is a problem in this city with regard to access to alcohol. It needs to be faced up to, and this Bill goes some way towards doing that. The Liberal Party supports the amendments which make it an offence to have opened liquor in a public place. I have an amendment to put before the house, which I expect will not get up, but I shall move it anyway. I see that there is to be an amendment by Ms Szuty, which deals with the question of a responsible adult. Madam Speaker, I argue that it is important for us to deal with these matters as appropriately as we can. The arrangements set out in this Bill are appropriate. They do constitute an important step forward. They particularly facilitate a measure which has long been overdue in this Territory, and that is the little card which Mr Connolly has just held up, his very own pubcard. I am sure, Mr Connolly, that with your receding hairline you will not be mistaken for a 17-year-old, by any stretch of the imagination. If they saw your behaviour here sometimes they might think otherwise, but not from your appearance. It is high time that everybody else in the Territory who wanted access to that card had it as well. It is gratifying to see this legislation to facilitate this happening, albeit rather too late.
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