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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (13 June) . . Page.. 1579 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

We also made a recommendation on sexual health. That related to the need to incorporate education and prevention programs specific to sexual assault as part of sexual health services. We know that sexual assault has two aspects to it. You have the victim and you have the perpetrator. There is a need to support the victim. There is a need to help people observe safe behaviour, but there is also a very critical need to ensure that people are told about their responsibilities not to commit sexual assault.

That was highlighted by the recent rape of a young girl who was intoxicated. There seemed to be a view that those girls should not have been drunk and should not have been where they were, rather than the focus being on the fact that the boys should not have done it. I guess the question is about making sure that in any sexual health work we make clear the responsibility that has to be taken by every single person never to impose themselves on anyone else sexually without full consent.

There is also an important recommendation about out-of-hours GP services for people on low income. (Further extension of time granted.) Health consumers gave evidence that they felt there had been an increase in GP services going to accident and emergency, and Mr Moore tabled a graph which was unclear. There was an increase in one category of patients in one of the hospitals since the HealthFirst call centre was introduced. The graph showed an increase at one level of patient in one hospital, but what was really clear and interesting from that graph was the effect of the closure of Florey medical centre. There is obviously an argument for access for people on low income, not only for the hospital accident and emergency load but also because the government has a responsibility for preventative primary health care.

There is a recommendation on free school buses. That was a surprise announcement, not researched at all by government. It was apparently a promise they once made. There has been a lot of debate about it within the education sector. It was a quite poor consultation by government. They claim that they promised it once, so that is the reason, but they have promised since on many occasions, every year, that they will consult with the community on expenditure in the budget. That has been the most frequent recent promise. Clearly there are promises and there are promises. There is obviously concern across the community about that decision.

The recommendations about O'Connor Ridge and the intertown public transport route are also important.

I do not think I will be able to seek leave for a third extension of time, so I will talk to one thing that is a little unclear in the report. There is a recommendation regarding the need for a code of practice for police as a result of changes to the bail laws. There was some confusion. I was not at the committee hearings for that. There seems to be a little bit of confusion and crossover between the government's recent package of increased police powers and the bail laws. That recommendation needs to be explained. Unfortunately, it was not fully explained in the report.

The Law Society was concerned that under the government's new bail laws police could manipulate the system by bringing one charge and then, when the person was on bail, bringing another charge related to the first offence. The legal community expressed concern about that. There is an argument for looking at how police use their powers related to charging under the new bail laws. I think the committee, in its

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