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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 997 ..
The Assembly met at 10.30 am.
(Quorum formed)
MR SPEAKER (Mr Cornwell) took the chair and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
MR SPEAKER: Members, before I call the Clerk, I think it is necessary to remind you that we were within 40 seconds of my automatically adjourning the Assembly because a quorum was not present. I would hope that other members in the building will listen to this. I ask all members to take this matter on board and I remind all members that it is not only one party's responsibility to provide the quorum. Thank you.
MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (10.37): Mr Speaker, I present the Surveillance Cameras (Privacy) Bill 2000, together with its explanatory memorandum.
Title read by Clerk.
MR STANHOPE: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Mr Speaker, I am pleased to present to the Assembly this Bill which represents a further step towards the end of the debate about bringing surveillance cameras to Civic. Members will recall that the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs reported to the Assembly in September 1996 on the efficacy of surveillance cameras. That committee made 11 recommendations and the Government accepted all but two of them. One of the recommendations rejected was that privacy legislation be enacted before the installation of any cameras.
Mr Speaker, it is probably worth repeating some of the other recommendations that were made by that committee. Recommendation 1 stated:
because of the lack of substantive Australian research about the effectiveness of CCTV, the Committee requests the A.C.T. Attorney-General seek the co-operation of the Commonwealth in having an Australia wide review conducted - possibly using the resources of the Australian Institute of Criminology.
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