Territory Stories

Debates Day 4 - Tuesday 9 May 2017

Details:

Title

Debates Day 4 - Tuesday 9 May 2017

Other title

Parliamentary Record 5

Collection

Debates for 13th Assembly 2016 - 2018; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 13th Assembly 2016 - 2020

Date

2017-05-09

Description

pp 1623 to 1686

Notes

Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory

Language

English

Subject

Debates

Publisher name

Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory

Place of publication

Darwin

File type

application/pdf

Use

Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Copyright owner

Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/271438

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/432640

Page content

DEBATES Tuesday 9 May 2017 1644 and bad, can be obtained. The same protection as Darwin, Darwin Rural and Palmerston areas have been granted. We believe this mining poses substantial and unacceptable risks to the NT Division of Lingiari, including but limited to: Contamination of the ground water Storage issues for toxic waste water Wells that will degrade over time Depletion of the ground water/river systems Increased seismic events Destruction of our natural beauty and therefore the tourist industry. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. LIMITATION AMENDMENT (CHILD ABUSE) BILL (Serial 16) Continued from earlier this day. Ms FYLES (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I thank all the members who contributed to the debate today for their support. This is an important bill we are debating today. A number of members from the government side provided comments. I sincerely thank everybody for the time they took to gather those thoughts, read the bill and seek briefings. I acknowledge the opposition members for their support and for taking the time to get a briefing on this bill. The Member for Sanderson spoke passionately about the tragic stories across Australia in which victims have not been able to get justice. The member is passionate about supporting victims, and I am proud to work with her and hear about her constituents concerns. This government will put victims first. I thank the Member for Nelson for his support with this bill. As he stated, we have taken the wider view on definitions in this legislation. The member made some important comments, and I thank him for that. The horrible stories we heard at the national Royal Commission demand that legislation in this area recognise the psychological abuse arising from serious physical abuse and/or sexual abuse. As the Member for Nelson noted, the law needs to catch up with the reality of the abuse as it occurred. I also thank the Member for Katherine for her well-reasoned and considered comments. She is a passionate advocate for law reform and for protecting victims of abuse from being re-traumatised by negative experiences with the justice system. As the member noted, this bill gives victims the chance to heal and then take action to seek justice, which is very important. We heard from the Member for Drysdale who, as always, is focused on improving the lives of Territory children. It is something she has translated from being a classroom teacher to a school principal to a manager in education and now here, as our Minister for Education. As she noted, this reform is long overdue in the Northern Territory and across Australia. The impact on these limitation periods needs to be removed based on everything we know now about abuse, how it occurred and what the victims went through. The Member for Drysdale also reflected on a childs learning following abuse. She noted the terrible situation of the powerless guilt and shame that affects so many victims and how that negatively impacts on their ability to get an education. Her vast experience in education is something we are all the better for hearing about. The Member for Braitling also spoke in support of this bill, and I thank her for her comments. As the Minister for Territory Families, she is making progress across the Territory in implementing reforms to support Territory children and families. I thank the member for her ongoing support for victims of abuse. I note that she recently announced, as part of Budget 201718, that $33m will be invested in frontline services, infrastructure and strategies to support the prevention of domestic and family violence that will