Page 481 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 1993
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Thursday, 25 February 1993
__________________________
MADAM SPEAKER (Ms McRae) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
MOTOR TRAFFIC (ALCOHOL AND DRUGS) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (10.31): Madam Speaker, I present the Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) (Amendment) Bill 1993.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill contains amendments to the Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977 to overcome a current defect in that Act. The need for an amendment became apparent following a decision handed down by the ACT Supreme Court on 21 February 1992 whereby a Canberra man succeeded in getting a drink-driving conviction overturned even though his own evidence had suggested that he had a blood alcohol level of at least .089, which is well in excess of .05. The Bill addresses the deficiency in the Act by amending the Act to make it an offence for a driver to have, within a specified time of ceasing to drive, a blood alcohol concentration equal to or in excess of the prescribed blood alcohol concentration.
The amendment will enable the prosecution to rely upon alternative evidence to establish the commission of the offence in the event that the validity of the breath or blood analysis conducted in accordance with the Act is successfully challenged. The right of the driver to challenge the accuracy of a breath or blood analysis will not, however, be affected by the amendments. Madam Speaker, I present the explanatory memorandum for the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
SOCIAL POLICY - STANDING COMMITTEE
Reference - ACT Housing Trust
MR CORNWELL (10.32): Madam Speaker, I move:
That the Standing Committee on Social Policy of this Assembly conduct an inquiry into the operations of the ACT Housing Trust.
Madam Speaker, for the last eight months my office has been rather patiently compiling a dossier, which we have now called "A Question of Trust", on the operations of the ACT Housing Trust over its 12,500 properties. The resulting alphabet of evidence shows an organisation that can no longer properly manage its stock or its tenants because it has simply grown too big, and it continues to grow with annual injections of funds from the Commonwealth through the
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