Page 476 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 8 March 2006
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Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I again rise on a point of order. Whilst I accept your advice that there is a political point to be made in this, Mr Stefaniak is yet to refer to the substance of the motion in any way. He has now been on his feet for close to half the allotted debating time but is yet to deal with the substance of the motion. Some relevance is required in this debate.
MR SPEAKER: Relevance, Mr Stefaniak.
MR STEFANIAK: I am getting a bit closer at the present time. Let me go to these questions.
MR SPEAKER: No. You will come to the subject matter of this and be relevant. It is true that the government—
MR STEFANIAK: The Chief Minister opened it up.
MR SPEAKER: raised the issue of police bashing. In a debate like this you are entitled to defend yourself, but you are required to come to the question before the house.
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I have indicated that it seems—and hopefully the government will accede to the amendment as well—everyone is quite happy to do so.
MR SPEAKER: That is the debate before the house. Why don’t we talk about that?
MR STEFANIAK: I think that would be a wonderful idea. Mr Smyth has indicated some information. We are yet to see some information from the police minister and the government. That would be very handy. I hope both these motions will be agreed to. I will get onto the issue of bashing police.
MR SPEAKER: We are not onto that yet, we are on the amendment. Come on!
MR STEFANIAK: The opposition, and even someone in the government, has conceded that the questions raised revolve around resourcing. The opposition have, both in respect of these questions and in respect of other recent questions, been very concerned and have made known our dissatisfaction with the lack of resourcing of police and the fact that the police often find it hard to do the job they would like to do on behalf of the citizens of the ACT.
We on this side have constantly raised complaints about the lack of police resourcing, which clearly impacts on their ability to do the job they really want to do on behalf of the citizens of the ACT. That was the crux of these questions. It is all very well for the government to try to twist them around, but that simply does not wash when you look at the questions. We now have motions in relation to the tabling of material and that is good. In recent times the Chief Minister has also talked about bashing police. Might I remind him that the Australian Federal Police Association and individual police were very keen to see the opposition sentencing package, which was knocked back in both 2003 and 2004 and passed in 2005. I do not think they are helped by some aspects of the Human Rights Act.
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