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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (8 August) . . Page.. 2600 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

We have had two recent amendments of the Bail Act, the latest one happening yesterday. I was talking to a senior police officer when I introduced the initial Bail Amendment Act. That officer indicated that in terms of recidivist offenders being caught, that amendment could reduce the burglary rate by anything up to 50 per cent. Well, that may be optimistic, but even if that helps reduce it by 10, 20 or 30 per cent, that is very important. Of course, we tightened up a few remaining loopholes in relation to that act which were drawn to my attention by the courts.

Tomorrow we will be debating the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill and other bills. There is a range of measures there which were put forward by a group involved in prosecutions, the police, the police association, the DPP and departmental people, in terms of what further improvements can be made to ensure that our police have the legislative tools that they need to do their job without one hand being tied behind their back. I have not had a chance to go through Mr Stanhope's amendments. I am delighted that he has given them to me, and I thank him for that, but I am a bit concerned because quite a few amendments say, "Oppose the clause" or, "Omit the clause." That is a bit of a worry.

I think it is very important for the ALP, if they want to have any credibility on crime, to look very seriously at giving the police the necessary legislative tools they need to do their job, and not just oppose measures for spurious and often incorrect so-called civil libertarian principles that are not really principles at all. The community, Mr Deputy Speaker, has a right to be protected. It is a fundamental duty, I think, of any government to do so, and it is important that we have appropriate laws to do that; laws that assist our police force to do their job of protecting innocent citizens and protecting society, and laws that are fair to the criminal.

We live in a democratic system. We have a wonderful tradition which we must uphold if we want to keep our democratic society, but I think it is important to ensure that we do not put the rights of the criminal over those of society. There needs to be a balance, and I think we need to strike that in this Assembly. If we do that we will be enhancing our society and assisting in reducing the crime rate. So sensible laws that assist the police in going about their task are crucially important and are an essential part of this equation.

Mr Deputy Speaker, there may well be more things we can do. There is obviously going to be more that needs to be done in the next Assembly to keep up the momentum that quite clearly has started. There are other measures too that no doubt members would speak about. Mr Moore has ideas-I might not necessarily agree with some of them-in terms of tackling the underlying problems of crime.

I will finish by commending my colleagues for the efforts made, especially in the last 12 months, to assist the police and other law enforcement agencies in this territory to counter crime. I specifically pay tribute to the wonderful work done by the Australian Federal Police in the last 12 months in terms of Operation Anchorage, Operation Handbrake and several other operations they had earlier on with a view to reducing the level of crime in the territory. I think these are outstanding results, especially when you compare them with what is happening interstate. These things need to continue. A lot of effort was put in by the police, and a lot more will be put in. I think we owe a very big

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