Debates Day 2 - 23 April 1975
Parliamentary Record 3
Northern Territory. Department of the Legislative Assembly
Debates for 1st Assembly 1974 - 1977; Parliamentary Record; ParliamentNT; 1st Assembly 1974 - 1977
1975-04-23
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Hansard
Darwin
pages 215 - 227
application/pdf
Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/221839
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/694870
DEBATES-Wednesday 23 April 1975 nudists, operate on a secluded part of their property. However, the question arises as to whether this would be permitted in law and whether there would be any contravention of the covenants and conditions of those leases. In order for us to see how widespread the effect might be, I would like to know the answer to that question. Mrs LAWRIE: People can permit what they like on private land. Dr LETTS: There are certain covenants in some of these leases which restrict the uses to particular purposes and I just don't know whether there could be any conflict. I would like to know the answer to that. Other than that, I think that the bill expresses all that is needed and I just wish to indicate my support for it at the second reading. Mr POLLOCK: I voted against the motion a few moments ago in the division to give more time because the concept of the bill presented originally a month or so ago has changed. The bill will now allow areas in any part of the Northern Territory to be prescribed by regulation. I am not opposed to the bill at all and I am now waiting until the next sittings to hear opinions from people outside of the coastal areas. I hope that in the next month and particularly in the next few days this matter will receive appropriate publicity and there will be feed-back to us. One aspect of the bill that does concern me to a degree is that there are no provisions to advise the public how to make application to have an area declared a free area. It appears that perhaps an area could be declared a free area and the regulations made without too many people knowing about it until it gets to the Legislative Assembly. I can see some problems in that every time an area is declared a free area we are going to have a complete free for all between various sectors and the debate about the whole matter will go on over and over again. I hope that does not occur and that, when areas are declared by regulation to be free areas, some common sense will prevail. I am not opposed to the concept of the bill but I have those minor reservations. Perhaps, before the bill passes through all stages, we may receive some feed-back from people outside the Top End. Mr STEELE: I was wondering about the name of this ordinance. I would have thought that it could have been referred to as the "Dick Muddimer Memorial Ordinance". 219 Also, I was a bit concerned about clause 4 because "Trumby was a ringer but he couldn't read or write." Perhaps signs could be looked at. Mrs Lawrie: Nobody is interested in signs. Mr STEELE: We will get somebody to paint a picture. I support the bill. Mr MacFARLANE: The fact that the bill has come this far is a tribute to Dick Muddimer. As far as I can work out, there were only about 50 or 60 people before the cyclone who were interested in this Sun Club thing and that amounts to one person in every thousand. In Alice Springs, you could say that, on the same proportion, there would be 13 people who would want a free beach; and in Katherine probably 3V2 would want a free beach. It does show the power of the press and it does show how you can make a big thing out of something that does not really matter much. I feel that we have much more serious things on the program than whether people wish to disport themselves in the nude or whether they prefer to behave like all other people and cover their private parts. If we pass this, a secluded area might be found on Marrakai for the purpose. The honourable member for Port Darwin would probably be interested in establishing a paying proposition out there. I do not support this bill. It has not anything to do with me at the present time but we seem to be making bills here for the good of Darwin but which affect the whole of the Northern Territory whether the rest of the Northern Territory likes it or not. My views do not carry much weight but I do oppose the bill. Mr RYAN: I rise in support of the bill. I must admit that I have not been approached by members of my electorate to advise me on this matter. However, I feel that it is something that can be brought into law without greatly affecting those people who do not wish to become involved in it. In supporting the bill, I would like to say that I would have preferred to try to influence my colleague, the member for Jingili, to present the bill that he got up himself. However, it was treated on the basis that it was an open vote and unfortunately the honourable member for Fannie Bay, who seems intent on getting back into the good graces of the member for Nightcliff Mr Tambling: Sticking to principles. Mrs Lawrie: This is an interesting debate. Tell me more about your inter-party wrangles.