By Andy Young
Queensland's parliamentary legal affairs and community safety committee has published the report of its examinations of the state's 'Tackling Alcohol-fuelled Violence Legislation Amendment Bill 2015'.
The committee was tasked with considering the policy outcomes to be achieved by the legislation, as well as the application of "fundamental legislative principles". The committee had to consider whether the Bill had sufficient regard to the rights and liberties of individuals.
In the report, committee chair Mark Furner MP said: "In this instance the committee was not able to reach a majority decision to recommend that the Bill be passed. However, the committee makes three other recommendations and presents its consideration of the large amount of information considered during our Inquiry."
The recommendations of the committee are:
- The committee recommends appropriate data on alcohol related incidents be collected and available from agencies which this Bill affects, for example Queensland Police, Queensland Health and Queensland Ambulance Service.
- The committee recommends that should the Bill be passed there be a thorough evaluation of the changes in the community as a result of the Bill’s implementation, eighteen months from commencement.
- The committee recommends the government address the drafting issues identified in section 3.1.7 of this report.
That third recommendation relates to "cross-referencing discrepancies which appear to be unintentional oversights, most likely arising from the legislation passing through a number of drafts".
Following from the report and the committee inability to reach a majority decision, the state's opposition leader, Lawrence Springborg, said the LNP would not support the legislation and called for the Safe Night Out strategy, implemented by the previous LNP government, to be given a chance to work.
"This is just an indication that there's not confidence in what the Government is proposing," Springborg said.
The minority Labor Government now needs the support of one of three crossbench MPs in the parliament, but all three have previously expressed concerns over the proposals, leaving the legislation in a precarious position.