Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am making an assumption—and I am sure you will correct me if I am incorrect—that the nature of the relationship that you are talking about is an unlawful or an inappropriate one. That would be a matter for the police. Tragically, over the years the permit system has usurped the real force of the law because people have said, ‘Well, we’ve got the permit system and that’s how we control things, so we do not need any police officers’. I am assuming that was the rationale because there are hardly any places where you can say, ‘There are sufficient police officers here and they are sufficiently resourced.’ We are moving to a model where there is the rule of law and if people travel into those places and they behave unlawfully then that is against the law. The law is there now to deal with it, not some notional system of permission where you say, ‘I’ll be able to have a bit of a chat to this person and I’ll be able to make an immediate appreciation if he is someone who is likely to be unlawful or not.’ The position we are moving to now is far superior to the one that we are leaving behind.