Page 2194 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 4 August 2015
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going to receive the advice. That seems odd. Surely, if we are going to have a body that is advising government, the chair should be independent. On the surface that is something that seems to be entirely logical; otherwise if you are going to appoint someone who is a director-general of a directorate to advise themselves on liquor licensing, what is the point of having that body to provide that advice? So I have significant concerns and I believe that it would be appropriate to have an independent chair.
The next element that I have concerns about is the ability for the commissioner to take into consideration associations beyond just formal legal or financial associates of the applicant for the liquor licence. Again there may be good reasons for this to occur, but I do have concerns that these new and additional powers that extend the ability for the commissioner essentially to reject applications and get criminal intelligence on the people that the applicant associates with are pretty far reaching.
Before we start extending powers, expanding powers and taking away rights, we need a more comprehensive understanding of the implications. Again there are concerns that have been raised on this issue in terms of how far those inquiries go, how public it becomes and why the application has been rejected. If an applicant applies and someone provides some criminal intelligence but it is not then tested in any sense in court, does the applicant have the right to defend that association? Those are questions that need to be investigated, and that is why we have committees.
The next couple of issues are a bit interrelated. They are about the supply of alcohol to minors. The first element of that is where somebody supplies alcohol to an underage person without the authority of their parent or guardian. I quote from the scrutiny committee report:
it will be very hard for a person at a private place to assess whether they are exercising responsible supervision, being an assessment that will have a bearing on whether they are charged with a criminal offence;
a wide area of discretion will be left to a police officer to decide whether to lay a charge; and
it will be left to the courts to determine, over time, the matters relevant to making the assessment, thereby in effect requiring the exercise of legislative power.
It went on to say:
The Committee raises no question as to policy objective, but it may be argued that a criminal offence should not have these characteristics. It should be noted further that the activity being regulated commonly occurs in households in the Territory, and many people will be brought within its ambit. The mere fact of being charged with an offence may affect a person’s reputation, and there may be circumstances where they are required to disclose merely the fact of being charged.
This is the point, Madam Deputy Speaker. Teenage parties occur in many households across Canberra every Friday and Saturday night. There are issues regarding the
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