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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4747 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

I will relate one incident in which the mounted police were involved that shows their effectiveness. At one Brumbies Friday night match out at Bruce there was a spate of breaks into motor vehicles, and a large amount of private property was stolen. Part of the problem was that you cannot supervise all of the car parks-

Members interjecting-

MR SPEAKER: Order! Resume your seat, Mr Smyth. We cannot proceed along these lines. It must be almost impossible for Hansard to decipher what is happening in the place. Mr Smyth, you have the floor.

MR SMYTH: I am happy to start again, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: I assumed you were finished.

MR SMYTH: No, I have not finished at all. The mounted police were put out to Bruce for the next night game that we had. Because of their superior vision and the sheer intimidation of the police, they nabbed the clowns that were doing the break-ins at the Brumbies games. There were no more problems at the Brumbies games because the mounted police were out there doing the job. You cannot have mounted policemen with their horses in Hall and the officers in the station. You have got to use them. You have got to have some use for them. You have got to try them before you write them off. You just did not like the idea because the former government did it. It is part of the whole program.

Let's not hear from those opposite that they support the police. We have a good record of listening to the police officers and making improvements to the Bail Act-which was their number one cause of complaint. They were sick of a revolving door that saw them arresting people for the same offence, often week after week, before they managed to bring them before the judiciary. We have said, "Fair's fair. People are entitled to bail. That's a good thing. But if you repeatedly break your bail, you really shouldn't be out there."It has had an effect. That is our legislation, and it is the legislation that New South Wales followed. Bob Carr thought it was so good he copied it.

You have got to have all the arms. We were the only ones to put forward the arms in terms of the sentencing. Let's have some consistency. I find it amazing that a boss, who may or may not be associated with the death of an individual, will receive 25 years for industrial manslaughter, but a criminal committing manslaughter while carrying out a crime will get a maximum of 20 years. Bosses are bad. Don't be a boss in the ACT because the Labor Party thinks you are worse than a criminal. It is inconceivable that you would allow that one.

MR SPEAKER: I would not stray into a debate about the manslaughter legislation. That is due for debate later.

MR SMYTH: I am keeping all that for tomorrow, Mr Speaker. I am happy to go through all this again tomorrow. Then we get down to the rehabilitation-

MR SPEAKER: No, you won't, because that will be reflecting on this vote.

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