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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2783 ..

The Assembly voted-

 	Ayes 7  				Noes 10

 Mr Berry  	Ms Tucker  		Mrs Burke  	Mr Moore
 Mr Corbell  	Mr Wood  		Mr Cornwell  	Mr Osborne
 Mr Hargreaves    			Mr Hird  	Mr Rugendyke
 Mr Quinlan    				Mr Humphries  	Mr Smyth
 Mr Stanhope    			Mr Kaine  	Mr Stefaniak

Amendment negatived.

MS TUCKER (11.06): I move amendment No 2 circulated in my name [see schedule 6 at page 2881].

Amendment negatived.

Clause 10 agreed to.

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

Clause 13.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.07): I move amendment No 3 circulated in my name [see schedule 4 at page 2871].

Clause 13 relates to valueless cheques, and this subsection creates the new offence of obtaining goods and services by passing a cheque that is not meant for presentation. I am not quite sure whether the government had anybody in mind, but there has been an issue lately of cheques being presented that have not been met. The subsection creating the offence places the onus on the defendant to prove that he or she had reasonable grounds to believe the cheque would be met and that there was no intention to defraud.

The scrutiny committee, the Law Society and the Legal Aid office all object to this section of the draft. The Law Society described the scope of this provision as breathtaking. We can all imagine scenarios where this provision would turn quite innocent people around the community into criminals. One would have thought, with the emphasis in financial transactions these days on credit cards, debit cards, EFTPOS and e-commerce-with smartcards still to come-that the opportunity for cheque fraud was declining.

This is another instance of the Attorney producing no evidence of the extent of the problem he is attempting to address. Once again, we are being asked to take this matter on faith. There may well be a wave of cheque frauds taking place. I have not heard about it; I am not aware of it. The Assembly has not been told that there is, so it can make no judgment. There is simply no evidence that this is a major problem that is not being dealt with and that there is no other way to deal with it.

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