Chiral Posted July 1, 2010 Legislative Assembly passes roadside drug testing laws LINK Canberra motorists will be subject to roadside drug tests after the Legislative Assembly passed new laws today. The Opposition's drug testing bill has passed this morning with the support of the Greens. Under the new laws Canberra motorists will face random tests for drugs including ecstasy, cannabis and methamphetamine. Opposition police spokesman Jeremy Hanson says the legislation is long overdue. "Although this has been a difficult process it didn't need to be and we're here today finally," he said. Chief Minister Jon Stanhope tried to adjourn the debate. Mr Stanhope told the Assembly the Human Rights Commissioner is worried about the bill's impact. "A piece of legislation that interacts with human rights raises human rights concerns," he said. It could take some time for the laws to come into effect. Commissioner warns drug tests risk breaching law LINK The ACT Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs has raised concerns that drug-driving tests risk contravening human rights. The Greens decided to back the Opposition's drug driving bill and will pass it today, but the Government says it is a flawed law because it did not go through proper consultation. Ms Watchirs says the bill would fail a legal challenge in the Supreme Court. ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says this shows the proposal would be bad law. "We're talking here about taking oral swabs and blood from people who are compulsorily stopped and tested by the roadside," he said. "The Chief Police Officer's saying, look there's inconvenient little things you've got to deal with in legislation like this called the rules of evidence, and the Human Rights Commissioner is saying we, the jurisdiction, have determined that we will not knowingly breach people's human rights." The Government sought the ACT Chief Police Officer and the Human Rights Commission's advice after claiming the Opposition failed to consult with either authority before proposing the bill. But Opposition police spokesman Jeremy Hanson says the bill has undergone rigorous scrutiny. "Normally in a Westminster system it would be inappropriate for a shadow minister to engage in consultation with a government official," he said. "It's not the way it's done. Normally I deal with associations and in this case I've dealt with the Australian Federal Police Association." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Heffa Posted July 2, 2010 A similar thing has come in Qld as you are probably well aware of since Dec 2007. I have only heard of two people being subjected to the test. One teenage P plater was stopped 3 times over 6 months northwest of Brisbane, and a middle aged women i know who does a lot of driving all over south east Qld was just waived through one in Brisbane metro. But that was in the first year of the law. Someone told me that to set up those specific road stops it costs a lot of money as the test were quite expensive... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mu! Posted July 2, 2010 somebody boycott these evil motherfuckers. subverting the testing with mass false positives would be ideal.. dose up a population of unscrupulous individuals with a harmless agent to set off the triggers bigtime and completely thwart the credibility of this fuckin bullshit scam *angry face* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ref1ect1ons Posted July 2, 2010 What would give a false postive Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
