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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 509 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

space of just four short years. I do not need to remind members either that the place of peak concern about that rising crime was in Civic. Civic was and remains an area of enormous concern to this Government, and, I assume, of some passing concern at least to the former Government, although they did not show much evidence of that fact, to be quite frank.

I think it is incumbent on this Assembly to start to do something about this problem and not to wait for yet another period of a year for there to be a further set of examinations and public inquiries and other processes which, laudable as they might be, defer the making of a decision about these sorts of issues. I do not think it was wrong to suggest that we go ahead with this. I spoke to a number of members of the Assembly; I admit that I did not speak to Ms Follett about it. I had given instructions for a letter to be written to Ms Follett about the proposal; unfortunately, that was overtaken by events this morning. I thought I had the agreement of members of the crossbenches as well for this proposal. I appear to be wrong.

I remain of the view that it is not productive to conduct an inquiry of the kind being proposed by Ms Follett without some evidence of what these things will mean and will do in the ACT. Why do I say that? Why do I appear, in Ms Follett's words, to put aside so lightly the civil liberties implications of these issues? Let me answer that question. Ms Follett tries to draw a line between the cameras I am talking about in this proposal and the cameras that already exist in our civilian lives at the present time. There are cameras everywhere in our community - in shops, department stores and banks, and outside those places as well. They are monitoring not just those people who are customers or clients within a bank, a building society, a shop or a department store, but also people out on the street. Ms Follett might not have realised it, but the last time she went to get some money from the Handybank she was probably photographed.

Ms Follett: And it says that.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, it says that, and I propose to have signs on these cameras as well, Ms Follett. Will that make all the difference to you?

Ms Follett: No, not enough difference for me.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, I do not think it will. We have cameras on our roads; we have cameras on public buildings like this one.

Ms Follett: And you should not have them on the roads.

MR HUMPHRIES: You put the cameras there, Ms Follett; I did not. The reason cameras are in these places is that they are there to detect crime in places where crimes occur. They are not on the Handybanks to capture the happy faces of people withdrawing money from their accounts. Ms Follett again runs away; she generally does when I speak in this place. They are not there to record the satisfaction of drivers who are booked for speeding or who pass through red lights. They are there to detect and record crime.

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