Page 3731 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
of, licensed premises for knives and to take action as a result of that. It creates that new offence.
There are of course the normal safeguards in terms of people who need a knife for the purpose of their employment. But no-one needs to carry a knife unless they are engaged in their trade or eating in a restaurant, or something like that, where the establishment provides the cutlery. No-one should be walking around Civic with a knife in their pocket when they are going to licensed premises unless they are there to do a job which requires them to use that knife in the course of their employment or trade. There is no excuse for that.
It is saddening to see especially young people carrying knives as a matter of course. I am told you only carry a knife because you intend to use it for self-defence or whatever. But that leads to tragic circumstances. Surely we want to do all we can to nip that in the bud.
The first piece of legislation was a good start. This improves on it. This enhances the ability of the police to do their job. It gives them the necessary power. I would hope the package before the Assembly serves in some way to deter people from carrying knives. I certainly think that if this is passed and police are utilising the power to do random searches, that will have a significant effect, like random breath-testing has had a significant effect, on driving habits. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Corbell) adjourned to the next sitting.
Commonwealth powers and ACT legislation
MS MacDONALD (Brindabella) (10.47): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) recognises the ACT Legislative Assembly’s right to make laws for the people of the ACT;
(2) calls on the Commonwealth Executive to:
(a) recognise Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly are democratically elected by the residents of the ACT; and
(b) respect the rights of the people of the ACT by allowing their democratically elected representatives to enact legislation and govern the ACT on their behalf; and
(3) calls on the Commonwealth Parliament to amend the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 to remove the Commonwealth Executive’s power to call on the Governor-General to disallow any Act which has been enacted by the ACT Legislative Assembly.
This motion raises an issue seminal to this Assembly and the people of the ACT. It appeals to the commonwealth to entrust this democratically elected Assembly with legislative authority. This motion expands on what Senator Bob Brown attempted
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .