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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3690 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Because we have been trying to find a solution to your problem and we cannot. The solution to the problem proposed by the Legal Affairs Committee is to spend over $100,000 on developing legislation and creating a special camera ombudsman. Mr Speaker, those provisions, those protections, are already in place. It is just not warranted to spend $100,000 on a trial.

Mr Osborne: Why did you not come to the Legal Affairs Committee eight months ago, or why did you not come six months after the report?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Osborne, you will have the chance to stand up and speak in due course. Stop interjecting.

Mr Osborne: It is pathetic. He stands there and he has had 10 months to respond to the report and he did not, and he says, "We do not have time".

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Osborne!

MR HUMPHRIES: We have responded to the report and we have indicated what our concern is. Our response said that we tried to find a way of doing this cheaply, and we could not. We said, "We have the offer here of free cameras. Let us use the cameras. Let us use the Ombudsman we now have as the Ombudsman to protect the privacy of those caught on those cameras, and let us use the legislation that the AFP already have in place to protect those who might also be caught in those circumstances". So we have everything the committee has asked for, every single thing. All I ask for is the capacity to proceed with the trial in those circumstances. That is the issue.

If the Assembly does not want to give us the capacity to do that, that is fine. Then there will be a debate about this in the coming election. There will be an issue about that. You have it within your power to prevent that from happening by simply allowing a trial. I say to the Assembly: What does it have to lose by conducting the trial on the terms proposed by the Government? Absolutely nothing. That is why, unfortunately, it is going to have to be an issue put before the people of the ACT. We will say to them that we want to have the use of a device which every other major city in Australia already uses, and which even the Labor Party has put in place. When the Labor Party put it in place they did not have any protections like a special camera ombudsman to deal with it, and they did not have special legislation to protect the privacy of those caught in those cameras; but when they are in opposition they want the Government, the Liberal Government, to make sure that it happens.

Mr Speaker, if there has to be an issue before the election, so be it. I would appeal to the Assembly not to make it an issue. I do not want to have that kind of debate. I would prefer it if we did not have a debate about these things in that context, because it does inflame people. I would prefer to be able to go forward without that kind of debate, and I invite the Assembly to accept that that is the sensible way of proceeding.

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