SUMMARY OFFENCES (PIERCING AND SCARIFICATION) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 19 February 2009. Page 1644.)

Mr GOLDSWORTHY (Kavel) (11:23): The member for Schubert is the lead speaker on this legislation, but I am pleased to make a contribution to this debate.

The Hon. R.B. Such: Show us your tattoo!

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: I don't have any tattoos, for the benefit of the member for Fisher, thank goodness. To give a bit of background to the legislation, the house may well be aware that the bill had been introduced in the other place by the Hon. Dennis Hood on 24 September last year. I might say, Mr Speaker, that, for one reason or another, 24 September is a very important date. It is the day I came into this world, quite a few years ago now; but we will not digress with minutiae. The Hon. Dennis Hood had introduced a similar bill over 12 months prior to that in June 2007, but that measure lapsed, obviously, when the parliament was prorogued.

I want to make a couple of points in relation to the effect of the bill. Currently, it is illegal to tattoo a minor, and section 28A of the Summary Offences Act refers to that particular aspect. This bill makes it an offence to pierce any part of the body of a minor unless the minor is accompanied by a parent or guardian—who, obviously, consents to it. The second point is that it extends the existing prohibition in section 21 to include tattooing and scarifying. I think scarification is a relatively new invention.

Ms Fox interjecting:

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: The member for Bright says it's not.

Ms Fox interjecting:

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: Okay; not in some ancient societies. It involves cutting the flesh—and I do not understand why anyone would cut themselves to create scar tissue—or perhaps branding it with words. Perhaps in the dark history of activity on the North American continent branding was an activity that took place, but that is a short description of what scarification or scarifying means. This practice is becoming increasingly popular. I imagine it would include people placing objects under the surface of their skin. We see people putting—

Ms Breuer: Horns.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: Horns on their forehead—that is right, member for Giles—and bumps, lumps and different sorts of configurations that alter their appearance. I am at a loss to understand why people would undertake that activity, but such is the diverse nature of civilisation.

In relation to the history of the bill, the member for Fisher introduced an almost identical bill in 2001, and in July 2002 the member for Enfield introduced a similar piece of legislation, which included the provision of a three-day cooling off period, medical costs and practices, and so on.

The prohibition of piercing and scarification has been on the legislative agenda for a number of years. It has been refined, I guess, over that period to prohibit the piercing of particular parts of the body of minors, excluding earlobes, without their parent's or guardian's consent.

We know that a number of cultures have the ears of quite young children, even babies and infants, pierced. A young daughter was born into the family of some friends of our family many years ago, and she was only a few months old when her ears were pierced; I thought it was quite a nice thing to happen. I remember that they used to pull pieces of cotton through the ear to keep the hole open, instead of putting in earrings. That practice has really been a long established and accepted part of our culture, whereas other piercings of other parts of the body certainly have not. The parliament believed that it was a sufficiently important issue to be investigated and referred the matter to a select committee, the Select Committee on the Tattooing and Body Piercing Industries. The committee produced a voluminous report.

Debate adjourned.