Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3010 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I am disappointed. I can see readily that Mr Moore's amendments are going to pass because he obviously has the numbers. That does not make me feel any better about it. Mr Speaker, it is not that I feel offended that my legislation is being rejected; the problem is that I feel that the Assembly is about to let the community down. They are going to soft-pedal on drink-drivers and reckless drivers when that is the very opposite of the message that we are trying to convey.

MR MOORE (9.23): Mr Speaker, I know that you, in particular, are going to be very interested in why it is that we are not going to do any of those things that Mr Kaine suggested. We are not going to soft-pedal; we are not going to be easy; but it is true that we are not going to execute anybody. There are going to be no public floggings. There is going to be nobody put in the stocks, and those things that might - - -

MR SPEAKER: You are sending the wrong message.

MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It would appear that there are many ways in which I send the wrong message. Mr Speaker, let me just clarify a couple of things. A special licence is not just having your licence replaced. A special licence is when a magistrate says you can drive under certain circumstances, maybe with nobody else in the car, maybe only between the hours of 8.00 am and 9.00 am. It is a special licence with very special restrictions on it. It is not just like having your licence replaced in the first place. Do not forget also that there is a $5,000 penalty, apart from the special licence. As my recollection serves me, it is $5,000. That is the first thing.

The second thing is that Mr Kaine talks about harmonisation with New South Wales. Now, come on! If somebody drives into here from New South Wales thinking there are tougher penalties because there are tougher penalties in New South Wales, fine. That is not going to affect us particularly. Most of us, when we drive in a different country or a different State, know that there are slight modifications to penalties and provisions and would normally be aware of those.

The next thing is that Mr Kaine said there is a special reason why we have to do this, particularly with drink-driving, and that is that the system does not work. When Mr Humphries and Mr De Domenico were launching this idea that they were going to be tough on drink-driving, the Canberra Times ran an editorial in November 1996 the headline of which was "Punishment plan out of proportion". The author of the editorial seemed to be speaking about Mr Humphries and wrote this:

He seems to have grabbed whatever figure is available to support his case.

His case was that things are getting much worse. The editorial continued:

He says despite a 1.16 per cent drop in the number of random breath tests carried out last financial year, the number of people found driving over the limit increased by 6 per cent.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .