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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 2668 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Rather than trying to adapt the existing restraining order provisions to deal with violence in schools, I think it may be more effective to develop a solution aimed specifically at this problem. A possible solution would be to include in the Schools Authority Act a specific power for an ACT government school principal, for example, or a delegate of that person to order that a person not come within a certain distance of a school or not do certain things in relation to that school. Alternatively, the legislation could give that generalised power to other parties, perhaps to the chief executive of the Department of Education and Community Services. A breach of an order like that would obviously be an offence.

In his presentation speech, Mr Berry acknowledged that the primary motivation for his amendments was representations made to him by the Australian Education Union. He did not refer to any other unions and there are not any other unions we are aware of that have called for amendments of this type to address potential violence in other employment contexts. I am not aware of any cases.

Mr Berry needs to be aware that at the present time it is possible for police officers, on behalf of an aggrieved person, to make an application for a restraining order if the aggrieved person, for example, is hesitant or unwilling to be involved in those court proceedings. In a situation where there is a generalised threat against a school or against students in a school, it is possible for the matter to be dealt with adequately under present ACT law, through the intervention of a police officer making an application of that kind to protect, if you like, the position of people who are not willing to appear in the proceedings in the court.

I do not believe it would be appropriate to expand the number of categories of people who can apply for restraining orders to include parties other than the police and the aggrieved parties, the parties being threatened. The possibility of allowing employers to make applications for restraining orders to deal with workplace-based threats could be considered in the context of the review that I have spoken about. Perhaps that would be appropriate. But that is a different scheme to the one which Mr Berry has brought forward today.

Mr Berry: This is just opposition for opposition's sake, Gary.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, it is not. I am sorry you see it that way. We have an intention to deal with this issue, and we have already indicated that there will be a review for that purpose. If Mr Berry was concerned about teachers having to put their home addresses on applications-

MR BERRY: No.

MR HUMPHRIES: You said that in your presentation speech. You said you were concerned about that issue. I can assure you it is not the issue. You do not have to put your home address on that application unless an order is necessary to provide protection against a person coming to that home address. Naturally, it has to be provided in those circumstances.

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