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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (21 May) . . Page.. 469 ..

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

I introduce this Bill in my capacity as a private member. It is not a Government Bill. It has not been to Cabinet, and I make no claims on other Government members in expecting their automatic support. I am sure that all members expect that this will not be the only such Bill that I present to the Assembly. While it will be difficult to match a busy program of private members business with my new ministerial responsibilities, I will be doing my best. No doubt it will mean that the number of Bills other than Government Bills and other than Opposition Bills will keep increasing. I can understand the incredible embarrassment of Mr Berry, because he had to lead into an election an inadequate Labor Party, a Labor Party that had done nothing over the previous three years.

Mr Berry: Relevance, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Relevance, Mr Moore.

MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I shall come back to the point. I can understand why he has taken a point of order - because of his embarrassment. Mr Speaker, may I say how pleased I am to see the crossbenches in this Assembly get off to such an energetic start with their legislation. It just proves how much this parliament has matured that no-one expects anymore that law reform proposals will be the business of the Executive alone.

This Bill implements an election issue which I raised. Since I did so, I have received a great deal of public feedback in support of the idea that leaflets placed under windscreen wipers are unwelcome to the public. I promised to introduce legislation into the Assembly to ban this activity, and today I do so. I appreciate members allowing me to do so.

I have received, as well as support, the opposing view that this ban would severely limit the ability of small business to advertise. It has been suggested to me that windscreen leaflets are a cheap and effective means of advertising and that they are the only means available to many small shops and businesses. I recognise these arguments and I have some sympathy with them, but I am sure that they are outweighed by the right of people to have their cars left alone. In any event, we all know that 99 per cent of the leaflets are simply discarded immediately and thus, no matter what their perceived advertising value, far too great a proportion of them simply become litter.

I should say that this Bill has been drafted quite sensibly. I appreciate the work done by Parliamentary Counsel in assisting me. It would not ban direct handwritten messages to a vehicle's owner or driver or messages which had been invited in some way; nor would it prohibit officials, acting in the normal course of their duty, placing parking fines or other official notices on motor vehicles. I know that that will be a disappointment for some people, but I think we also recognise that it is important for officials to be able to do that; otherwise, my colleague Mr Smyth would not be able to collect the revenue that he needs or to control parking.

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