Page 2851 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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into the Legislative Assembly by the ACT Liberal Party. The AFPA understands that the Bill has the support of the ACT Greens and is due to be passed into legislation this week.
The AFPA has called on the ACT legislators to introduce random roadside drug testing as a road safety initiative for the Territory. The AFPA is pleased that such legislation is now imminent.
The AFPA National President, Jon Hunt-Sharman stated today:
“Random roadside drug testing legislation will provide AFP police officers greater scope to test and subsequently prevent drug-affected drivers from driving on Canberra’s roads. This will make ACT roads safer for all Canberrans”.
Introduction of this bill constitutes a significant win in allowing AFP police officers access to greater tools in their fight to keep the community safe from drug offenders whilst balancing the rights of individuals.
Throughout the process of drafting this Bill, the AFPA has been pleased with the constructive nature of consultation by the ACT Liberal Party. A number of recent amendments to the draft Bill, to be introduced by the ACT Liberal Party, are a direct result of successful consultation with the AFPA. The AFPA also supports the amendments recently introduced by the ACT Greens to improve on the draft legislation.
Mr Hunt-Sharman said:
“The AFPA applauds the measures introduced in this Bill, those measures will aid our members in exercising their duties to the community as professional police officers. This Bill will save lives by getting drug affected drivers off the streets of Canberra.”
I make this point very clear, Mr Speaker: I am confident that, with the amendments, the bill will also address the issues raised recently in the media by the ACT Chief Police Officer based on an earlier version of the bill.
It is difficult in opposition to engage with government departments. The government knows this. The way that consultation is done is often through community organisations and those that represent professional bodies, such as the police force. This is absolutely supporting the Liberal Party’s bill, our amendments and the Greens’ amendments. I thank the AFPA also for the constructive processes that they have followed. Obviously it is a disappointment to me that the Chief Minister has decided to take such an adversarial approach.
Obviously we will go through the amendments in detail as we consider the bill, but I make the point that this has been successfully implemented in every other jurisdiction in Australia. The ACT is now the last jurisdiction. Any concerns that have been raised by the Chief Minister or others have been dealt with successfully in every other jurisdiction in Australia and have been for some time. Although this has been a difficult process, it did not need have been. We are here today, finally, to implement this legislation. But I would say, as a point, that we should have been here much sooner. We could have been if the Chief Minister had decided to be constructive and engage in the process rather than fight this since 2005.
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