Page 3403 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012

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This would see the proposed maximum penalty rise from 50 to 100 penalty units—in effect, a maximum fine of $5,500 to $11,000. The proposed penalty of 50 penalty units is based on the offence of selling an R18+ movie to a child. In a vein similar to the comments of the attorney, while I understand the intent of Mrs Dunne, I believe that ultimately it makes more sense to keep the act internally consistent. On that basis, the Greens will not be supporting the proposed amendments.

Question put:

That Mrs Dunne’s amendments be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the negative.

MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): The question is that this bill as a whole be agreed to.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.31): It is disappointing that the members of the Labor Party and the crossbenchers could not bring themselves to agree to this rather sensible improvement, especially when you contrast it with other penalties on the statute book. For instance, as Mr Seselja just confirmed for me, the penalties for distributing single-use plastic bags under the plastic bag legislation is 50 penalty units, again something which has received some notoriety and a larger penalty than is currently on the statute book, or a similar penalty which is on the statute book, for having minors in a brothel.

It shows the standards of the Labor Party and the Greens when they come to this. They say that we have this very strong penalty of 50 penalty units for distributing plastic bags because of the strong evidence of pollution. We have strong evidence before us, which the minister always likes to minimise as much as possible, of the impacts of excessively violent and sexually explicit games on the population generally and particularly on young people. But when it comes to setting the penalties in this place, the minister and the Greens think that it is comparable to distributing a plastic bag at a shopping centre.

The Canberra Liberals actually believe that our children and our families need more protection than they do from distributing plastic bags. That is why we have moved these amendments today. This could have been a better piece of legislation—it could have better protected the children in the ACT—except for the intransigence and the blindness of the Labor Party and the Greens.

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