Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-28 Daily Xml

Contents

RUNDLE MALL

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:40): I do. The minister mentioned that traders have sought—

The PRESIDENT: Without explanation.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I was referring to the element of the answer that I was hoping to ask the question about.

The PRESIDENT: You must ask the question.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The question is: given the minister's statement that the traders seek the breaches of the peace and offensive behaviour and language to be addressed—none of which are covered in by-law No. 6—will the government commit to using South Australian police to actively enforce the laws we have?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:40): The disallowance of by-law No. 6 has created significant uncertainty. The Adelaide City Council is uncertain of what powers it has to control certain activities in the mall, and this is all because of the Hon. Mr Wade's absolute desire to protect his position. Of course, the South Australian police will, as always, act in accordance with the law; they will protect our citizens from breaches of the law. That is quite a silly question really; we might refer it to the Minister for Police.

Mr Wade is trying to squirm out of a very serious situation. What we have here is that traders are now suffering a downturn of business and people are being accosted within Rundle Mall. This is the result of a disallowance motion that obviously had far-reaching consequences that the Hon. Mr Wade did not understand. As the alternate number one lawmaker in this state, that is unacceptable.