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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4737 ..

MR CORNWELL (continuing):

been a takeover of justice by the anti-justice lobby, with their quite breathtaking arguments against most sentencing laws. Two examples will suffice. Mr Stanhope is very good at setting up straw men and knocking them down. I intend to do the same. The first example I will give is-

Mr Corbell: We need tough laws on drink-driving, Mr Cornwell! That's what we need.

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Corbell! Mr Cornwell has the floor.

Mr Smyth: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: if Mr Corbell is casting an imputation on a former member of this place, a Labor member, who was done for drink-driving, he should withdraw it.

Mr Corbell: We're not casting aspersions on a former member, Mr Smyth!

MR SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order.

MR CORNWELL: Mr Stanhope sets up the straw men every time and knocks them down.

Members interjecting-

MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Cornwell has the floor.

MR CORNWELL: Thank you. I repeat: there is, or has been, a takeover of justice by the anti-justice lobby and there have been some quite breathtaking arguments against most sentencing laws. Two examples will suffice. The first one is: the death penalty is no deterrent.

Mr Hargreaves: It certainly is a cure!

Mr Stanhope: Bring back the gallows! I missed that in the bill.

MR CORNWELL: Don't pinch my lines, Mr Stanhope. This is said with finality. It is the ultimate justification of the abolition of the death penalty. But who said it? Who said that the death penalty is no deterrent-apart from the offenders, some of whom, thanks to the absence of the death penalty, have been released and have killed again? That is a tragic reality not mentioned by its abolitionists.

Mr Corbell: Do you support the penalty, Mr Cornwell?

MR CORNWELL: Yes, I do in certain circumstances.

Mr Corbell: You do, do you? Oh, good-oh.

MR CORNWELL: Mr Corbell, I am on the public record as saying that on a number of occasions.

Mr Corbell: Does your leader support the death penalty? Is that the Liberal Party position?

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