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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (6 September) . . Page.. 2922 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: I did not. I did not mislead. What I said, Mr Speaker, was accurate.

Mr Stanhope: What is this two years nonsense you are going on with?

MR SPEAKER: Order! I warn you, Mr Stanhope.

MR HUMPHRIES: The fact is that these do not apply to children; they do not apply to people who commit offences that are not serious. They only apply to indictable offences, and when a suspect is tested and that person is subsequently cleared of an offence, any DNA sample taken from that person has to be destroyed. So there are ample protections in these arrangements. Incidentally, those protections in that respect reflect the model criminal code officers committee recommendations on this issue.

Mr Speaker, there are differences between some states and some territories as to the question of what level of offence is caught on the permanent DNA database record. We have chosen offences that carry a penalty of two years or more. Those people opposite argue obviously that there should be a five-year limit or some other limit. Mr Speaker, the fact is you cannot have it both ways. You cannot say you are concerned about crime in this community and not support comprehensive DNA legislation in this place. You cannot have it both ways, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. What you can have both ways was not part of the question.

MR SPEAKER: I think Mr Humphries is finished. Mr Osborne, do you have a supplementary question?

MR OSBORNE: Yes, thank you, Mr Speaker. Are the police set up, minister, to handle DNA sampling immediately should this legislation be passed?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I understand that they are. The legislation we will pass is reflective of legislation passed in other parts of Australia. Only this week I understand that the federal justice minister opened necessary premises in the ACT that will facilitate the collection of the data. The laboratories of Weston are now, as far as I am aware, fully operational. I visited them a couple of weeks ago and they appear to be fully operational. There is no reason why we cannot proceed immediately.

There is a question of some other work being done at the national level by the AFP to allow the collection of information from different states and territories and placing it on the database, Mr Speaker, but to all intents and purposes the ACT arm of this exercise is ready to go. The only missing ingredient in all of this is the support of legislators for this important legislation. That is what stands between solving a host of crimes in this community and not solving those crimes. Mr Speaker, there are crimes today unsolved in this community which I believe will be solved quickly after the passing of this legislation. There are crimes now waiting to be resolved. It is up to members opposite and those on the crossbenches to decide whether they want those crimes to be solved or they do not.

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