Page 4842 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .


(c) a person of the same or opposite sex to the first-mentioned person who lives with that person as his or her spouse on a bona fide domestic basis; or

(d) a person who stands in loco parentis to the minor.

I have stated previously that I believe that this definition is prescriptive and does not necessarily take account of the situations in which young people would have access to bar room situations; for example, in extended family groups. This is especially applicable to people from particular cultural backgrounds and perhaps people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Mr Connolly, in his capacity as Attorney-General, may raise the scenario of young people, perhaps in a group of other young people and people over the age of 18 years of age, and whether those people who are perhaps over 18 are responsible. I believe that it is better to emphasise the behaviour and conduct of the responsible adult rather than whether they are parents, spouses, de factos or whatever. This definition of responsible adult, which I am putting forward for members' consideration, is more open to subjective interpretation - I do acknowledge that - but I believe that it is more workable and will be more realistically applied in practice.

MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (5.02): The Government will not be opposing this amendment. We had originally intended to be a bit prescriptive. There had been concerns about the brother, the friend or the mate of the 17-year-old, and our definition was meant to fix that. Acknowledging that this is an Assembly of compromise and consensus on the last sitting day, we will not be opposing Ms Szuty's amendment. I thank members for their support of the pubcard. They have probably seen the pubcard in the paper this morning. It actually is bright orange and has my photograph on it. In fact, all the ones that have been issued have my photograph on them. I do thank members for their support. These will start to become available from about 15 or 16 December.

Amendment agreed to.

MR HUMPHRIES (5.02): I seek leave to move two amendments together.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: I move:

Page 8, lines 2 and 3, clause 14, paragraph (a), proposed new subsection 84(1A), omit "with the intention of consuming the liquor in that place".

Page 8, line 7, clause 14, paragraph (a), after proposed new subsection 84(1B), insert the following subsection:

"(1C) It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subsection (1A) if the defendant adduces evidence that he or she did not intend to consume the liquor in the prescribed public place.".


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .