Page 1697 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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This is a very important issue. I congratulate Mr Hanson for bringing this matter forward and for driving it. I think that he has forced the attorney to take a position. I think that the attorney’s belated taking up of this issue is welcome. I think that the proposal put forward by Mr Hanson is the preferable one but, if that does not succeed, I think that the Assembly should look very seriously at his amendments to the attorney’s original motion.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.39): I will speak briefly to this issue because I think that Mr Hanson and Mrs Dunne have covered some of the issues well. It is worth looking, I suppose, at what is driving the response of the Attorney-General because we seem to have been getting some pretty conflicting messages about what his position is on this issue. The very first thing he had to say about it was that he really did not believe there was any need to take action by way of legislation.
The AAP website of 30 March 2009 contains a summary of the shift in approach that we have seen from the minister on this issue. It states:
The ACT government is taking a wait-and-see approach to the introduction of tough anti-bikie gang laws, hardening its stance following two slayings in Canberra.
…
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell had rejected the need for tougher laws in the territory, following the shooting death of two Rebels bikie gang members in suburban Canberra last week.
But on Monday he signalled he would consider whether new laws were now needed in the territory.
“It’s a wait-and-see approach” …
An earlier report stated:
“South Australian laws are extremely draconian, they're effectively the equivalent of anti-terrorism laws for domestic uses,” he said.
“I think it is very important that we don’t take a knee-jerk reaction to these issues” …
We have now seen the shift, and I suppose it is partly because Mr Corbell has seen the response in the community. We saw a similar shift, although perhaps a far more dramatic shift from Nathan Rees who originally did not have much to say but is now on a crusade to deal with bikie issues.
While the minister has been slow to come to this issue, I commend Mr Hanson for seeing straightaway the significance of what was happening. The ACT cannot stand alone on an issue such as this. We cannot simply be the only jurisdiction which does not update its laws to deal with this threat. We saw the recent statements from
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