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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (7 August) . . Page.. 2452 ..

Mr Smyth: Correct. That is the bill that is listed on the paper.

MR HARGREAVES: I thank the minister for his update, and I say that quite sincerely. I was somewhat amused by the way in which the proponent of the burnout legislation made much in the local media about the stuff-up in Belconnen. We found in fact that the burnout was not on a public street at all. We find, Mr Speaker, that this is nothing more than a smoke and mirrors, hard line, law and order exercise designed to give somebody publicity.

When I was in my electorate the weekend before last I was taken to a spot where people had been doing burnouts. This incident had been reported to the police. The police, who have the authority to do something about it, went down to the spot and found nothing but rubber marks on the road. Mr Speaker, we do not have enough police to enforce the law. If Mr Smyth wants to laugh about this, I will quite happily take him to the place where the rubber marks are on the road. Our attitude on this side of the house is that burnouts are not an acceptable practice at all. It is a stupid practice which is likely to cause injury and death.

What we are concerned about, though, is the ability of the police to knock your car off. I do not like that. I believe that that is what the judiciary are for. We have said a thousand times before that that is why we have magistrates. This is a blatant case of the proponents of this legislation having no faith in the judiciary. Withdrawing power from the judiciary is not the way to go.

There has not been much lateral thinking. We oppose this legislation on rights and privileges grounds, not on the motives behind it. Mr Speaker, why didn't Mr Rugendyke, or even the government for that matter, introduce a significant savage on-the-spot fine for this practice? If they are so keen to stop it, what is wrong with that? What is wrong, for example, with investigating whether or not the police could carry in the back of their vans or cars wheel braces that lock up and immobilise vehicles for a number of hours? Why not give police the power to do that, and embarrass people in front of their peers? What is wrong with that?

Mr Speaker, it is not my job to propose legislation to fix the government's inadequacies. Nor is my job to propose an alternative to Mr Rugendyke, although I have suggested some of these measures to him. Instead of saying, "Let's give more power to the police," we should be addressing why the stupid practice of burnouts is still happening. I suggest that knocking a bloke's car off is neither here nor there. In my office I have statistics from constituents who have talked to me about this problem. A lot of people complain to me about lack of safety in the suburbs. They talk about people roaring up and down the streets, leaving rubber all over the place, tearing around the car parks, and putting donuts on the road.

How many prosecutions have we seen? By Christmas in the first year of this legislation, I think there were something like seven, and none of them related to incidents in Tuggeranong. How many of them were in Ginninderra? I bet there were not too many. They were in the known hot spots like Lonsdale Street and Challis Street in Dickson. But we do not see many people charged in the suburbs, because by the time the police get there, they are gone. We need to have legislation which will stop them doing it in the first place. But just knocking your car off is just stupid; it

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