Page 2203 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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fines in relation to a Skyfire concert. Hopefully, some parts or all of that bill might meet with the government’s approval; we will see.
Another area is in relation to bail. Whilst the Bail Act works reasonably well, despite an occasional outbreak by the courts in terms of defining exceptional circumstances, which I thought was fairly well defined by the High Court, and in relation to adults, there are some big concerns that the police have raised about the section not being used in relation to juvenile offenders. There are some glitches there which I think need ironing out. Accordingly, we will seek to tighten bail provisions, especially regarding repeat juvenile offenders, who do not seem to be covered by the current law. We will reintroduce sentencing legislation, again along the lines of three bills that I put up in 2003, 2004 and 2005, seeking to bring us into line with other jurisdictions, specifically New South Wales, over the border, where their legislation works well.
We will also reintroduce legislation to re-establish the independent statutory authorities, specifically in relation to tourism and emergency services. It is interesting when we hear the Chief Minister say, “Oh, where are your policies?” Well, here are a couple: re-establishing the independent statutory authorities for tourism and emergency services.
Another area of concern involves a central part of our community—that is, the licensed clubs, which provide wonderful services for tens of thousands of Canberrans at affordable prices. They are a main source of entertainment for so many of our people, and they give so much support to community organisations and sporting groups. There is a real concern in relation to the effect that note acceptors have had, with double the administration cost and no discernible impact at all on problem gamblers. We will be introducing legislation on note acceptors to enable clubs to use $50 notes rather than $20 notes. That will save a lot of administrative costs, it will have no discernible impact on problem gambling and it will also be of great assistance to clubs. A lot of clubs are struggling and they need assistance so that they can continue to provide excellent service.
Legislation will be introduced regarding donations, including banning political donations from licensed clubs. I don’t know how that one will go over. There will also be legislation about establishing genuine land banks. Now that we have passed the planning legislation—and that was legislation with which everyone was pretty happy in principle—there are obviously some glitches there. There are some things that could be done better. There are still issues in relation to the planning legislation that has been passed. We intend to take up those issues and glitches by introducing some further amendments which will enhance that legislation.
These are some—indeed only some—of the initiatives that the opposition would like to see introduced into the ACT legislation book. As I said earlier, I do not expect that this Assembly will embrace all of these proposals.
Mr Barr: Ha, ha!
MR STEFANIAK: I note that Mr Barr is laughing. I can think of one that they certainly will not embrace. But I look forward to the Assembly giving the matters
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