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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3689 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

If you call that a law and order auction, I suppose we are engaging in an auction; but I would suggest to you that the response we have had to those issues has been fairly mild. We have not run around saying, as almost every other police Minister or police opposition spokesperson in this country has been saying, "The Government has to crack down in these areas. It has to put more resources into these things".

Mr Wood: As you used to do. That is what you used to do.

MR HUMPHRIES: I beg to differ.

Mr Wood: And I have avoided that.

MR HUMPHRIES: I beg to differ. You produce the evidence, when you speak again, Mr Wood, on what I have said that is inconsistent with that approach.

What I say to you is that we need to strike a sensible balance. The balance that I am proposing we strike here is that we acknowledge the concerns of people like Michael Moore and we have a trial of the surveillance cameras. That is all that I am asking for. I am not saying I want to put the cameras up left, right and centre, although they are all over our town at the moment. Some of them were erected by - - -

Mr Osborne: If you wanted a trial, why did it take you 10 months to respond to the report?

MR HUMPHRIES: I will come to that, Mr Osborne. There are cameras all over the city at the moment. They have been there and have been operating for some time. Some of the cameras were installed by the Labor Party, outside here, and who built this place? Who erected those in the Belconnen bus interchange? They have been there. Again we have this double standard applied; if the Labor Party does it, it is okay, but if we do it, it is not. All I am saying is, "Let us have a trial".

Mr Osborne asks why we have not responded positively to the trial.

Mr Osborne: No. Why did it take you 10 months to respond to our report?

MR HUMPHRIES: I repeat, Mr Speaker, that the cost of enacting special legislation merely for a trial - - -

Mr Osborne: Why did it take you 10 months to respond to our report? That is all we want to hear.

MR HUMPHRIES: I heard your interjection, Mr Osborne, and I do not intend to respond to it.

Mr Osborne: Because you are embarrassed; that is why.

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