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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1697 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

change the way in which the Government proposes to deal with this issue. Members are free to do that. If members are proposing to establish a position which the Government is not at this stage proposing to establish, I hope that they will indicate where we are to draw the money from to do that.

To turn to the funding which has been proposed for the ACT under the national campaign against violence and crime is not a long-term solution to that issue, because the money we propose for that project is not recurrent. It is fine, as Ms Tucker suggests, for us to take the money proposed for the ACT this year and run with it. We are assuming that the Commonwealth will agree to that. Assuming that they do, to take the money this year and run with it leaves the question of what to do in future years about resourcing that position.

Ms Tucker: You are going to have that question with cameras, too, Mr Humphries, if you like them.

MR HUMPHRIES: Perhaps so, but the Government has proposed a course of action for dealing with it which does not pre-empt the outcome of that determination. With the greatest of respect to members of this Assembly, I do not believe that we are the best placed people to make a decision on this subject. I think members of a council committed to, if not eradicating, reducing the incidence of domestic violence in this Territory are best placed to make such decisions, or at least recommendations to the government of the day. That is the course of action I propose. If members of this place prefer to amend the legislation, so be it. It is their prerogative to do so. I indicate that they are going to have to suggest to us how we do that and where we will find the money to do that. I think it is an unfortunate course of action.

To be frank, I think the importance of this position being established first has been exaggerated. Ms Tucker said that if we have this particular position, alone of all the recommendations that have been put forward by the CLRC, that will take the ACT from lagging behind the rest of Australia to leading Australia. I think that is something of an exaggeration. I really cannot see how you can impute that to the appointment of a person to one position. My view is that the council is much more important in that respect than is the appointment of a project coordinator. As I have said before, this is a matter in the hands of the Assembly, and the Assembly will make a decision about this when Mr Wood's amendments come forward. I have not seen the amendments yet. I do not know what they say. I hope that we can see them in enough time to look at them carefully and to consider them in some detail.

There was some veiled criticism of the idea of taking the Victims of Crime Coordinator and making her the person who would guide the Domestic Violence Prevention Council in its early stages. I have to say that Ms Robyn Holder, who presently holds that position, has a great deal of expertise in the area of domestic violence, including, interestingly, in multiagency - - -

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