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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 (Hansard) 16 May) . . Page.. 1341 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Some families do not deserve to have children, in my opinion, because of what they do to them. Some families abuse their children, fail to nurture them, fail to give them proper values, fail to give them a respect for the society they live in. Mr Speaker, there is no doubt that those children are very badly affected by living in families like that. Other families, of course, do the kind of job that I guess we would all like to think our families have done and raise upright, balanced and entirely respectable citizens.

There is one aspect of the paintball debate that I think does relate to the family. If we allow this game there will be children growing up watching daddy, and perhaps mummy, toddling off to paintball on a Saturday morning, wearing their combat fatigues, with a gun, and simulating killing, just as there are children now who, in their own homes, amongst their own family members, are watching and playing violent videos, violent computer games and so on - things which I would have thought any right thinking person would not allow children to see or to play with. Mr Speaker, I think that you cannot ignore the influence of paintball in the family situation. There is no doubt whatsoever that children will learn something about their parents' participation in such a game, and personally I deplore that. As I have said, I think it is up to us all to try to break down this popular culture of violence, even if it means being somewhat unpopular when we do so.

Mrs Carnell's comments, frankly, appalled me. What Mrs Carnell did was use exactly the same arguments as those being put today by the gun lobby on why they should retain their arms. She said that it is a matter of freedom of the adult, that we do not want to restrict people's freedom to go about their lives as they see fit. Mr Speaker, those kinds of arguments, I think, will be forever condemned as being the arguments put by people who wish to retain a freedom which they never had. The right of ownership of guns is not a freedom. In my view, it is not a freedom that our community should ever condone. It is not a freedom for people to wish to arm themselves. Surely, the only people who, with any logic, would wish to arm themselves are those who are under siege of some kind, far from being free. Mr Speaker, I was appalled that Mrs Carnell should mouth, in a different context, the very arguments being put forward by a group I regard as being totally irresponsible and totally anti-social. Mr Speaker, I think that the arguments put forward by the Government and by Mr Moore were extremely hollow.

Mrs Carnell concluded her remarks by saying that paintball does not involve the unlawful exercise of physical force. Well, except for Mr Humphries's regulation, that is exactly what it would involve. Mr Humphries has brought forward a regulation to allow that unlawful exercise of physical force, which is your definition of violence, and it is that very exercise of violence which I am seeking to put a stop to. Mr Speaker, I again commend the motion to the Assembly. I believe that if we do stop just this one game in the Territory we will have done a service to our community. There are other games that I would stop as well. I agree with Mrs Carnell on that. The only issue on which I think the AMA and I are of one voice is that we would both ban boxing; but we do not have a boxing Bill before us. We do have a paintball regulation, and I would commend to the Assembly the opportunity to deny yet another form of violence in our community.

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