Page 680 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 July 1989
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Mr Stefaniak: Well stage-managed.
MR BERRY: You will get your chance. All the speakers were opposed to the legislation. Even after Mr Collaery's advice, they were still opposed to the legislation.
Mr Kaine: They did not know anything about the legislation either. That was obvious.
MR BERRY: It is archaic move-on legislation, to increase police powers. That is what people were concerned about. They were concerned about their kids being arrested for having torn jeans, long hair and pimples and being caught in the street late at night. That is the sort of stuff that this legislation will deliver.
Mr Moore: And witchcraft. It is just as logical.
MR BERRY: That is right. You are spot on. Round them up, too. A little while ago, and yesterday as well, we heard Mr Collaery getting stuck into workers who indeed walked off the job in response to the dreadful activities in China. How much time did Mr Collaery give up? How much money? None, I will bet.
Mr Whalan: He was at the Chile demonstration.
MR BERRY: Was he?
Mr Whalan: Crossing the Chile picket line.
MR BERRY: Yes, drinking a bit of champagne somewhere with Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: One of the most objectionable parts of his speech yesterday was when he referred to the crowd as grunters out there. I do not give a great deal of credibility to what he says, and my wife and 16-year-old son who were out there were most amused about that when I told them. They do not give much credibility to what he says. To refer to them and all of those other ordinary Canberrans who were out there opposing what the conservatives here were up to as grunters is a bit off.
I go back to the issue of the focus of this legislation. I think it is very clear that it has a focus on youth. I had the discomfort of travelling around with police, the hoodlum squad, for six hours whilst they did their job. It is not a very good job, and I have a great deal of sympathy for police in the performance of their work because they have a very difficult job. It is one that I would not like to take on, and I dare say that not many people in this Assembly would like to take it on.
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