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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2589 ..

Clauses 11 and 12, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 13.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (5.47): I seek leave to move amendments Nos 4 and 5 together.

Leave granted.

MR STANHOPE: I move:

Once again, Mr Speaker, I think these are important amendments. They go to the separation of responsibility between the police and authorised officers. I contend that the ejection of one of our citizens from Bruce Stadium for some perceived wrongdoing at the stadium is something that should be carried out only by a member of the police force. If one of our constituents, a resident of Canberra, goes to the soccer and behaves in a way that offends the police or an authorised officer-we are talking here of circumstances in which the behaviour is offensive to an authorised officer-the bill as it stands allows an authorised officer to eject that person from the stadium. That is a level of power in relation to this Olympic event that I think is too great to vest in an authorised officer.

I have no difficulty with that power being vested in the police. The police have the appropriate training in relation to the restraint of individuals and those processes that I am sure from time to time are very difficult. They are dealing with people who, for whatever reason, may not behave in a particularly orderly way. That process can be carried out by an authorised officer who has not had the appropriate training and does not know how to conduct the ejection in a way that is safe for their person, other patrons or the person being ejected.

I think this is a reasonable amendment. If, heaven forbid, there is a need to eject anybody from Bruce Stadium during the Olympics, that ejection should be on the basis of a judgment made by a member of the police force, and the ejection should be carried out by a member of the police force, or at least under the close supervision of a member of the police force, so that the police will take and accept responsibility for that action.

It is a serious matter to manhandle somebody out of a sporting stadium and out of a public place. It is a serious thing to contemplate. It is a serious power to vest in somebody who does not have the requisite training, both in the detection of behaviour in relation to which it is appropriate that a person be ejected and in the actual physical ejection of a person.

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