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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1629 ..
MR RUGENDYKE (continuing):
In conclusion, I believe that this bill will serve to fix the ongoing problems in our tenancy tribunal system and create a workable model that successfully resolves, rather than prolongs, disputes. This will be a more productive and beneficial environment for both tenants and landlords, and I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries ) adjourned.
MS TUCKER (11.01): I present the Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance) Amendment Bill 2000, together with its explanatory memorandum.
Title read by Clerk.
MS TUCKER: I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
Mr Speaker, this bill amends the Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance) Amendment Act 1999, which was passed, as members may remember, around 4.00 am on the last day of sitting last year. That act produced a scheme that is unjust and unfair, discriminatory, inconsistent and bad law.
This bill does not attempt to turn the clock back; neither does it attempt to implement every recommendation made by the Justice and Community Safety Committee when it inquired into the proposed bill over several months last year. In bringing this new bill before the Assembly, the ACT Greens are simply offering the government and its crossbench supporters an opportunity to correct the most glaring inequities. If they are not prepared to amend the legislation, the debate of this bill provides, at the very least, an opportunity for them to explain their position to the Assembly and the Canberra people they represent.
In this context it is instructive to look at the more recent history of victims of crime compensation. The disquiet dates from the 1997 release by the ACT Attorney-General of a discussion paper on the reform of the Australian Capital Territory criminal injuries compensation scheme. Key recommendations were that financial assistance for pain and suffering be assessed by the proportionate scaling method, that financial assistance for psychological injury be limited to significant persisting disability, and that the amounts available to secondary victims of crime be limited, compared to that of primary victims.
Following extensive public response to the 1997 discussion paper, the ACT victims of crime coordinator convened a victims support working party to consider the needs of crime victims in the ACT. Members of the working party included police victim liaison officers and representatives of the ACT departments of Justice and Community Safety and Health and Community Care; the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the National Association of Loss and Grief, the Domestic Violence Crisis Centre, the Victims of Crime Assistance League and Canberra Rape Crisis.
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