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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 4036 ..
MR STANHOPE (continuing):
Mr Osborne, and on which the Labor Party was represented by Rosemary Follett, the possibility of using security cameras as part of a trial of a safety and crime reduction measure in Civic.
From the day of the tabling of the report, the Labor Party made its attitude to the possibility of this trial quite plain. On 25 September 1996 Ms Rosemary Follett said in this place that she was very pleased to be speaking to the report. She commended the report to the Government and hoped that the Government would respond positively to the recommendations and the prospect of conducting a trial of security cameras in the ACT.
It took the Government 10 months to respond to the report. The report had general cross-party support, despite certain members and the Labor Party having reservations, recognised by the committee, about the privacy aspects of the use of surveillance cameras in a controlled trial. That was a quite reasonable view accepted across the Assembly.
The Liberal Party did not hesitate to embrace this proposal as part of its policy for the last election. Among the promises the Liberal Party went to the people of Canberra on at the last election was a promise to undertake a trial of security cameras in Civic. Given the comments that the Attorney has been making about this matter, perhaps he has forgotten the extent of the promise that he and his party made in the run-up to the last Assembly election. Perhaps it is relevant that I read some of it out. These are the Liberal Party's promises to the electorate at the last election:
Cameras have become a part of every-day life for many Canberrans. Banks, service stations and other establishments (even the ACT Legislative Assembly itself) have used cameras for security protection for many years, without public concern.
Cameras do work as a crime prevention measure, and also assist to solve crimes.
The document goes on to talk about the advantages of cameras. Then come the promises:
The Canberra Liberals will trial safety cameras in Civic.
No ifs and buts. The Liberals will do it. It goes on to say:
The cameras will be monitored during peak periods by the Australian Federal Police, and during non-peak periods will operate on a record facility. Camera vision will be available at all times, should incidents be reported.
These are the Liberal promises:
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