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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 2 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 370 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Earlier today Mr Stanhope indicated that there are a number of reasons why the rate of certain crimes has dropped. He even somewhat conceded, however ungraciously, that the Bail Act amendments, which I and the previous government introduced and the previous Assembly passed in May and August, had something to do with that-as did some other activities such as Operation Anchorage. Particularly nasty offences that really concern our community, such as burglary, car theft and armed robbery, have been reduced significantly, largely through changes to the law and through other police activities as well.

All the improvements that have been put in place in the last 12 months will be in jeopardy if this legislation does what I suspect it will do, which is to wind back sensible powers that the last Assembly gave to the police to go about their duty and do their job to the best of their ability without one arm being tied behind their back. I do not think Canberra citizens are going to be very impressed with what Mr Stanhope is bringing forward here.

I will just flag that that is certainly something the opposition will not abide by. I think we have quite a good balance now of the legitimate civil liberties of offenders, the right of the community to be protected and a legitimate means of giving police the reasonable powers they need to do their job properly.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Papers

Mr Quinlan presented the following papers:

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