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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-18 Daily Xml
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RUNDLE MALL

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question about management of the Rundle Mall precinct.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I understand that the state government and the Adelaide City Council are working together to address unsafe and antisocial conduct in Rundle Mall. Will the minister update the chamber as to what action is being taken to address this issue?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:40): I thank the honourable member for his very important question. As members would be aware, for a number of years a group of street preachers have been preaching in Rundle Mall without permission from the Adelaide City Council. Previously, the Adelaide City Council had enforced a by-law, known as By-law 4, Roads, which provided that persons must not preach, canvass, harangue or distribute literature on a road (including Rundle Mall) without a permit issued by the council.

As many members would also be aware, in mid-2010 the preachers challenged the validity of by-law 4 in the District Court, pursuant to section 276 of the Local Government Act 1999, and the matter went on to appeal to the Full Court of the Supreme Court. In August 2011, the court held that the words 'preach, canvass, harangue' in clause 2.3 of the by-law and the entirety of clause 2.8, 'distribution of literature', infringed upon the freedom of political communication implied from the Commonwealth Constitution. The Full Court held that those words were invalid and should be severed from by-law 4.

Owing to the decision of the Full Court, the preachers do not currently require a permit to preach, canvass, harangue or distribute literature in the mall. The Attorney-General from another place has sought special leave to appeal the decision of the Full Court to the High Court of Australia; however, that appeal is some months away. The Adelaide City Council has since adopted a by-law, known as By-law No. 6, which sought to deal with unsafe and antisocial conduct in Rundle Mall. The by-law again contained references regulating preaching, canvassing, haranguing and the distribution of literature, as the by-law was drafted prior to the Full Court judgement being delivered invalidating those words.

As members would be aware, last month this chamber passed a motion that disallowed by-law No. 6. The current state of the law, therefore, is that by-law No. 4 is operative with the words 'preach, canvass, harangue', and the distribution of literature has been severed. On Friday 7 October, I walked through Rundle Mall during the evening shopping period and saw first-hand the disruption caused by a group of street preachers and the negative impact this disruption has had on the traders.

I was joined by Mr Martin Haese, of the Rundle Mall Management Authority, and the Lord Mayor, the Hon. Stephen Yarwood. The situation in Rundle Mall was quite confronting. The activities of this group of street preachers can be offensive to passersby—and by no means were they preaching Christianity; it was just one big homophobic rant as far as I could see—by virtue of the volume and content. Large numbers of protesters have been gathering each Friday night in Rundle Mall to protest against the preachers' views.

I spoke to retail owners, who noted that business has been adversely affected by the preaching and subsequent protesting. At the outset, I want to make clear that the state government does not want to infringe upon the implied freedom of political and religious communication; nevertheless, I believe that the Adelaide City Council must have the ability to regulate unsafe and antisocial conduct and appropriately balance the interests of all mall users.

I am pleased to advise the chamber that a model by-law has been developed by the state government in consultation with the Adelaide City Council. The model by-law for Rundle Mall will allow for the Adelaide City Council to regulate the use of amplification generally, the use of equipment, such as platforms and stages, and prohibit the interference or disruption of any person's permitted use of Rundle Mall.

The introduction of this model by-law should assist in meeting the concerns of Rundle Mall traders and balance the competing interests of Rundle Mall users and enable council to better regulate the conduct of preachers. The model by-law has been published in the GovernmentGazette and will be laid before both houses of parliament under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1978. The model by-law may be adopted by the Adelaide City Council after the time for disallowance under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1978 has passed. This means that the model by-law is likely to come into effect in February of next year.

Members of this chamber may be interested to know that, once the disallowance period has passed and when adopted by the Adelaide City Council, the model by-law will operate in addition to the operative portion of Adelaide City Council by-law No.4 as it does not contain any overlapping clauses. The model by-law operates only in respect of pedestrian malls, whilst by-law No. 4 relates to all public roads. Unlike disallowed by-law No.6, the model by-law does not contain any of the words 'preach', 'canvass', 'harangue' or 'distribute literature' which were held to be invalid by the Full Court of the Supreme Court.

At the last session of parliament, I was quite critical of the Hon. Mr Stephen Wade for moving the disallowance and, on reflection, I must say that I realise that the whole motive behind this for Mr Wade was his defence of freedom of speech. He may not have understood the consequences that arose out of this through the mall and the traders but, in a spirit of good faith, I extend an invitation to the Hon. Mr Wade to join me for a walk down Rundle Mall to talk to some of the traders and put this issue beyond partisan politics and work together in a bipartisan way to overcome the problems in the mall.

The PRESIDENT: Does the Hon. Mr Wade have a supplementary or has he accepted the offer?

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