Page 4541 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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Legislative Assembly but also as a member of this community who has lived here for many years, I do acknowledge the concerns of Canberrans in this space. It is impossible not to see the impacts of violence and intimidation on victims in our city who have been the subject of, or witness to, some very serious crimes over recent years. It is a difficult area of law enforcement to legislate in.
As our voting record has shown, the Greens have not to date felt that debates in the Assembly have offered the best way forward. But we do believe that this legislation has been drafted in a way that will make a real impact. We believe that it will strengthen the protection of our citizens and enhance law enforcement. That is why we will be supporting it while maintaining a focus on ensuring that it delivers what it has set out to. We are pleased to lend our support to this legislation today.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts, Creative Industries and Cultural Events, Minister for Building Quality Improvement, Minister for Business and Regulatory Services and Minister for Seniors and Veterans) (11.34), in reply: I am pleased to close the debate on this important piece of legislation. I thank members for their support of this bill; it is important to have that trilateral support. I also place on record my appreciation to the people who have worked on this: the members of the JACS team, especially the criminal law team who have been working extensively over a number of months to draw all of this together. I also thank the scrutiny committee for its comments, and as a result of those I table a revised explanatory statement.
Of course, as we get the support for this bill it would not be a debate in relation to organised crime without there being a broken record from across the chamber with the Canberra Liberals regarding anti-consorting laws. I again place on the record that the government continues to work on matters that are both human rights compatible and also, importantly, effective. In doing that we will look at the evidence and not the opposition’s grandstanding.
The evidence is clear and remains clear—the anti-consorting legislation and the criminal organisation control order legislation espoused by the Canberra Liberals are simply not effective in achieving their aims. Therefore, the government will not move in that direction and we will not be sidetracked by the broken record of the opposition. The government will continue to work in areas that are effective. The Crimes (Disrupting Criminal Gangs) Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 marks another stage in this government’s effective work in tackling the threat to public safety caused by organised crime.
Individuals who operate in criminal gangs or organised crime often see themselves as operating outside the law. Clearly, this is unacceptable for the people of Canberra and the ACT is committed to implementing effective legislative approaches to disrupt criminal gangs and to make it harder for them to operate in the ACT. This bill supports the government’s commitment to target, to disrupt and to prosecute criminal gangs in the ACT and makes amendments that focus on individual involvement in organised crime to support public safety.
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