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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2138 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

In many instances, as I am sure people understand, stalking can lead to actual violence, and it is a quite common scenario for domestic violence, serious domestic violence, to be associated with previous incidents of stalking. So I think it is about time that the Assembly acted upon this matter.

We have had the benefit of an excellent report by the Community Law Reform Committee who consulted widely and over a long period, a couple of years, on what might be the best provisions for the ACT in protecting people from stalking. Mr Speaker, I realise that the Community Law Reform Committee is about to bring down the second part of its review of our suite of domestic violence protections, and I very much look forward to seeing their second report; but, as I say, I believe it is appropriate that we act swiftly upon their first report which dealt, amongst other things, with the offence of stalking and with the ACT's lack of legislation on the matter.

Mr Speaker, in closing the debate, I might just flag to members of the Assembly that I have had discussions with the Attorney-General and with officers of the Attorney-General's Department and we have negotiated agreement on the proposed amendments that the Attorney-General will be moving. I should say that most of the amendments, I think, are sensible and appropriate, but there are just a couple of issues where I want to amend or to follow on from what the Attorney-General is proposing to do. So, Mr Speaker, I want to make people aware that there is broad agreement between the Opposition and the Government on how we should proceed with the Bill. I accept totally the Attorney-General's point that this is a matter which eventually will be subject to national model legislation. However, I am also aware that that model could be quite some time away. This is a very broad-ranging review of legislation that is being conducted by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General who have not been noted for their swift response in the past on any subject. They tend to be careful, cautious, thorough and all-embracing in their review, and I do not believe that we should wait for that model legislation in order to provide some measure of protection to people in the ACT.

I do regard the Bill that I have introduced as, in some ways, an interim measure, but I believe it is an appropriate interim measure because of the breadth of its coverage, because of the consultation that went into the production of this piece of legislation, and because I do not believe that the ACT should be without appropriate protection from stalking whilst we await the national model. I thank members for their support and I again commend the Bill to the Assembly.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

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