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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2787 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The presumption of innocence is at the heart of our justice system. If the government had thought to include a wider group in its crimes law working party, we might have ended up with a fairer result. It appears that we will not have this particular proposal supported in the Assembly, so that is at least a good thing.

Question put:

That Mr Stanhope's amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted-

 		Ayes, 11  			Noes, 6

 Mr Berry  		Mr Quinlan  	Mrs Burke  	Mr Stefaniak
 Mr Corbell  		Mr Rugendyke  	Mr Cornwell  
 Mr Hargreaves  	Mr Stanhope  	Mr Hird  
 Mr Kaine  		Ms Tucker  	Mr Humphries
 Mr Moore  		Mr Wood  	Mr Smyth
 Mr Osborne
Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 13, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 14 and 15, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 16.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.26): I move amendment No 4 circulated in my name [see schedule 4 at page 2871].

Mr Speaker, this amendment is in relation to police powers to stop and search. The section heading is "Stopping, searching and detaining people". Upon reading this proposed new section, it becomes quite clear why the Attorney did not deign to consult the legal profession, the Legal Aid office or anybody else with an interest in the rights of citizens.

Once again, it is a worry, in relation to this whole suite of amendments, that there is no evidence to justify the need for such a fundamental change to police powers of stop and search. There is no decent explanation or justification of why the police feel that they need to so fundamentally change their powers of stop and search.

It is not an issue that has been raised with me. It seems to me that the police have managed to cope without these powers very well. They are well used to obtaining sufficient evidence to arrest a person without seeking a warrant. The Attorney will be aware that I sought information through a question on notice in relation to this. In the past three years the police have managed to arrest 3,800 people without a warrant. It

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