Page 3480 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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When you consider the amount of money, for instance, that has been wasted, according to the Auditor-General, on the Emergency Services Authority building, you could have built a community legal services hub over and over and over again. I kid you not—probably three times over we could have built the community services legal hub.
There are other issues we need to deal with here. We see, for instance, in the budget that there is $526,000 over three years for the implementation of R-rated videos, for which legislation passed today. There is $121,000 in this financial year and then $133,000 indexed from 2013-14. It is interesting that this will not come into operation until January 2013. It will be very difficult for the government to spend the $121,000 effectively in the first six months of the operation of the legislation considering, as I have said before, that the Office of Regulatory Services does not have a regulatory regime that it can apply in this case.
Turning to the Office of Regulatory Services, we have a huge problem with the implementation of liquor licensing. The review that we saw this year has made very little difference to the operation of liquor licensing. We see huge amounts of red tape for every liquor outlet in the ACT, irrespective of whether it is a tiny suburban restaurant in Florey or the largest pub in Civic. The regulatory regime is the same, which is a ludicrous approach. Anyone who knew anything about managing a business—which Simon Corbell obviously does not—would not have set up a regulatory regime of the sort that we have seen in relation to liquor licensing.
I want to touch briefly on the issue of delays not just in the courts but also in the ACAT. (Second speaking period taken.) I have become increasingly concerned about the delays in the ACAT. On a regular basis—about three times this week—I have had complaints from people who have had matters in the ACAT where there have been considerable delays that have caused considerable costs. There seems to be a real problem in the administration of the ACAT. There seems to be no rhyme or reason about how matters are dealt with and how, for instance, costs are awarded and, if costs are awarded, whether interest is charged and how that will happen. These are matters of considerable concern and that the attorney has not been diligent in looking at the issues in the administration of the ACAT.
There are a couple of community issues that I would like to reflect on, almost as a segue for Mr Hanson, who I am sure will speak about police matters as well. I am concerned about the incapacity of the police to deal with terrible neighbourhood disputes. I could recite the details of neighbourhood disputes which have been extraordinarily troublesome to people not just in my electorate but across the territory where people have gone to the police and the police seem to be powerless to assist them in dealing with matters. Even when there are clear descriptions of breaches of the law, it seems the police are powerless to do anything about them.
One case I am aware of has been going on for at least four years and has resulted in criminal charges. This started as a neighbourhood dispute, and back in 1998 Gary Humphries created the neighbourhood dispute resolution system, but it is not enough. It was a start, but more powers are needed for police to deal with local infringements,
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