Page 1161 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 1991
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An innovative aspect of my Bill is that it provides for the release of detainees into the care of a responsible person. So, you can be released into the care of a responsible person, Mr Collaery, if you have not already noticed. That provision, of course, is not contained in the Crimes Act - as you will see if you care to take a look. Contrary to the impression conveyed by the Ministers' statements in today's Canberra Times, the eight-hour detention period is not a minimum but a maximum period.
For example, one who is over the effects of alcohol can be released in an hour. So, for Mr Duby to say that you would be incarcerated as a mandatory provision for eight hours is outrageously inaccurate, and it forms part of a deliberate campaign to misinform the community about the very innovative provisions of the Bill which was introduced in this place by a private member of the Assembly.
Special Premiers Conference Initiatives
DR KINLOCH: My question is addressed to this side of the house, just to even things up. It is to the Chief Minister. Is the Chief Minister aware of claims in the Canberra Times - one of our local newspapers - of 20 March 1991 that initiatives arising from the Special Premiers Conference will reduce the level of services and funding available for a whole range of community services? Would he comment on those claims?
MR KAINE: Like my colleague opposite, I will try to be short in answering this question. I read that comment in the Canberra Times and I am rather curious that anybody could reach that conclusion - anybody that understands what the intentions of the Special Premiers Conference and the actions flowing from it really were. Of course, the claims are always being made, but they are not supported by any facts. One wonders whether this is another ploy of the Opposition over here, because they never produce any facts.
The October Special Premiers Conference spent a good deal of time considering how a range of services - such as aged care, health, training and the labour market, and child care - could be delivered more effectively. It looked at those matters in the context of the duplication of services between the various levels of government. The conference settled on a framework of some guiding principles against which some reviews would be undertaken at the officer level, and those reviews are now under way. They will be reporting to either the next scheduled Special Premiers Conference in May or the second one, which is scheduled for, I think, November of this year.
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