Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (11 May) . . Page.. 1425 ..
Mr Humphries (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety): Mr Speaker, on that point: if one can discreetly read a newspaper on the front bench in the position of the Leader of Opposition, then I suppose we all can. I note that Mr Stanhope has been extremely keen to defend other parliamentary conventions, such as the making of regulations, so I thought I might draw his attention to one he may have overlooked in the course of the last little while.
Mr Stanhope: It appears that I was quite consistent with the convention.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The matter has been-
Mr Stanhope: I had not overlooked the convention. I was acting quite in accord with the convention. I was reading the newspaper quite discreetly and quietly. The Attorney is simply wrong.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The matter is not-
Mr Stanhope: He should be embarrassed by his pettiness.
MR SPEAKER: The matter is not-
Mr Humphries: I just drew it to your attention. I did not make any comment.
Mr Stanhope: You were simply being your usual petty, nasty self.
MR SPEAKER: We will get on with the business of the house, thank you very much. I have drawn it to members' attention.
MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (10.59): Mr Speaker, I present the Spent Convictions Bill 2000, together with its explanatory memorandum.
Title read by Clerk.
MR HUMPHRIES: I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Spent Convictions Bill 2000 creates a spent convictions scheme for the ACT which will allow certain convictions to be disregarded in appropriate circumstances after a period of time has elapsed. Spent convictions schemes are well established in a number of other Australian jurisdictions-the Commonwealth, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.
While there are some variations in the legislation in place around the country, the purpose of all such schemes is to enable a person who has been convicted of, generally, a less serious offence and who has subsequently not reoffended for a specified period of
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .