Page 2638 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Duby: A publicly advertised demonstration.
MR HUMPHRIES: Publicly advertised in the newspaper; I have got the ad here somewhere.
Mr Kaine: And that was the augmented group.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, that was the augmented group obviously, the large sized group. It was advertised in today's Canberra Times: "Rally today", it says, "Save Royal Canberra Hospital".
Mr Berry: It brought 4,000 signatures, on top of the 41,000.
MR HUMPHRIES: Well, where were the 4,000 people today? They were not here at the Assembly. It is a very dangerous yardstick, Mr Berry. I think the ultimate yardstick is the next election. Like your colleagues in the Federal ALP, I expect a lot of people in the community to understand why we are making these decisions and to vote accordingly.
Civil Liberties
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (5.19): I rise to close the adjournment debate. For the information of the house, I table a copy of a letter I sent today to Mr David Eastman that adequately sets the situation as I see it as Attorney-General. In brief, I have informed him that his complaints - which he has made to every member of the Assembly and many members of their staff, at odd hours of the evening, night, morning, weekends, rain, hail and shine - have been effectively investigated by the Commonwealth Ombudsman, on my advice. I set out in my letter the proper response of this Government to his complaints. I draw his attention to the fact that neither Senator Tate nor myself has statutory power to direct the Australian Federal Police in its day to day operational matters. That is a matter that the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 gives to the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.
I trust that Mr Eastman will take note of that and will also take note of the fact that he should, as Mr Wood correctly observed, also have consideration for the civil liberties and privacy and right to peace of others. Nevertheless, in relation to the resolutions or apparent resolutions or the media release of the Civil Liberties Council by my good friend and colleague Mr Laurie O'Sullivan, I have made abundantly clear to the chief police officer of the ACT the proper concerns that any Government should have in matters of civil liberties and questions as to whether there is a threshold at which protective behaviour becomes intimidatory and provocative in itself. I have made my views clear to the chief police
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .