Page 683 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 July 1989
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people when they are moving about their legitimate business in the city; that is no excuse whatsoever. If the effect of it is to focus on the youth and the disadvantaged that is unfortunate, but we have here a question of the balancing of the interests of the youth and the disadvantaged who are the perpetrators of the crime and, on the other hand, of the aged and the insecure who are the victims of the crime. Let us look for once at the victims. I do not have any objection whatsoever to the Government's proposal to look at the long-term issues and the problems of the youth and disadvantaged; I agree with that entirely. But do not confuse the issue - the purpose of this debate and this Bill - and divert us from the course of action that we should be taking.
The only other matter to which I wanted to refer, Mr Speaker, is the Chief Minister's reference to the matter that she has put on the notice paper today. It has never been there before. We have been debating this Bill now for some days, and we are finally getting to the nub of it and trying to get somewhere, and now the Chief Minister comes up with her counterproposal. Now she is suddenly concerned about public behaviour in and around shopping centres.
It was only yesterday that it was argued that there was not any such problem and that is why we did not need this Bill. There is no such problem - that is what the Government was saying yesterday. Now she has a motion on the paper to have a look at this undesirable behaviour in public places and see whether we should not be doing something about it.
All that this is, Mr Speaker, is a cheap attempt, on the part of the Government, to set aside the Liberal Party's initiative on this matter and to supersede it with a Labor Party initiative. It thinks, "The objective would be the same, but let us not let the Liberals and the opposition have any credit for trying to achieve something for this society. Let us bury that; let us hide it; let us obscure it; let us denigrate it, and then we will put up our own proposal". That is what that is about. I would have been much happier if the Chief Minister had put that on the notice paper three weeks, six weeks or two months ago. Then I would have thought that there was some serious concern for the community in so doing.
They talk about being cheap and vote grabbing. That is the ultimate, in my view. Denigrate what the Liberal Party and the Residents Rally are trying to do; get that off the agenda so that you can put up your own motion and then you can look good at the expense of these people. That is what that is all about, and I would like to think that there was some genuine concern on their behalf.
Government members talk about representing the community; they talk about consultation; they talk about open government, but I do not see very much of it until they are forced into it. Let us, Mr Speaker, address the issue; let us address what the real purpose of this Bill is - to
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