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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (1 March) . . Page.. 468 ..

MR BERRY (4.41): A lot has been said about this issue. I will try my best not to replicate anything that has been said by other members unless it is absolutely necessary. These laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia have been proven to kill people. There comes a time when parliaments in other places have good cause to express a view about certain laws. Let us not delude ourselves; these laws are responsible for the death of people. They are laws which most members should find abhorrent and appalling.

Our system of justice has been developed on the basis of the separation of powers. The judiciary has a role in determining the application of penalties in all sorts of cases. Right-wing redneck people sometimes try to infringe upon this role with mandatory and summary offences and with summary powers being handed over to individuals in the community, in particular, the police. I do not think in many cases the police want these powers, but that is the tendency.

The problem is that these laws almost invariably hit first and hardest the marginalised sectors in the community. This is a classic case of that happening. It should be a strong signal, a sentinel, to all of us about these sorts of laws and the effects they have on different classes of people. These laws have been shown to kill indigenous people. The plight of indigenous people is not unknown. We know about the difficulties imprisonment poses to indigenous people. We have been warned about it over and over again. The report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody warned us about these issues.

The Northern Territory and Western Australian governments trumpet these unfair laws as success stories because they are able to inflict heavy-handed penalties with immediate effect on elements of the community who, in normal circumstances, are not well positioned to defend themselves and are not well positioned in the social structure. Invariably these people come from a group whom society has failed. These sorts of laws, in effect, punish the victims. It is unacceptable that laws which punish the victims should be supported.

My comments in this place on the rights of Territories are on the record. I believe the citizens of Territories should not be treated any differently from the citizens of States. I know constitutionally we touch upon a sensitive area if we delve into states rights and argue for changes to the Constitution or for intervention. But there comes a time, when human rights have been seriously infringed upon and where people are being killed because of bad law, when you have to do something. That is about as blunt as I can be. People are being killed by bad law. In my view, something has to be done about this.

Ms Tucker's motion is worthy of support because initially it will warn Mrs Carnell that what she has done is totally inadequate and we need to distance ourselves from it. Furthermore, it is a statement that we are upset by these deadly laws. Supporting this motion will show that we stand in strong opposition to what is occurring in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Whether or not it comes to intervention at a political level federally is another question. I think Ms Tucker in her speech mentioned a quote from a notable person along the lines that "evil is only furthered when good people sit on their hands".

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