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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2264 ..

Debate resumed from 19 June 1997, on motion by Mr Humphries:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR WOOD (8.38): Mr Speaker, in the middle here, between the Government and the Opposition, is a row of books. They physically separate us; but they outline the debates that have been held in this Assembly since its beginnings, not so long ago. Nowhere in those books do I think that you would see as strange an occurrence as happened when Mr Humphries introduced this legislation just a very short time ago, when he read his prepared speech and said, "I commend this legislation to the house. Please vote for it". Then he also said, "Hang on; I do not know whether we are going to have it passed. I want to think about it still". That was a very strange approach by the Minister to this legislation. I have not seen it before.

At the request of this Assembly, the Minister commissioned a report; but the report, it seems, did not tell him what he wanted to know. So, he wants to trash the report. He wants to do away with it. Now, I think, the machinations are such that we are about to extend the extension of the trial. We had a trial for a set period. Then the Minister, and perhaps others, wanted an extension. So, it was extended. Now we are going to extend it again, while the Minister mucks around and tries to come up with some solutions. I see the ideas that have been proposed by the Greens. I think it is a very strange way to do business. It does not seem to me that the Minister or the Government know what they want to do.

In fact, we had a commitment in this Assembly, given by this Minister - by this Government - some time ago, that there would be a trial for a certain period and, at the end of that, we would decide whether we would hold to 4.00 am or some other time of closing, or continue the 24-hour trading that has applied in recent times. The commitment has been repudiated. It is not there. We have these interminable extensions. What is going to happen, come 30 September, if these amendments get up tonight? What is going to happen on 30 September? Is the Minister or are others going to come into this Assembly and say, "We still do not know. Things still are not in place. Let us extend it further."? Every three months in this Assembly we will go through the process of extending the trial.

Mr Speaker, like others in this Assembly, I am concerned about some of the culture attached to the consumption of alcohol in the ACT, as elsewhere in Australia. I think it leads to a lot of undesirable attitudes by a relatively small number of people. Most people in this community drink and enjoy alcohol and present no problem to anybody else in doing so. Most of the outlets provide alcohol, and there is no problem attached to that. Unfortunately, a minority of people abuse the rights that they have.

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