The Liberal Government and Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin have been embarrassed in the Upper House with Legislative Councillors rejecting the Criminal Conviction Levy.
Shadow Attorney-General Lara Giddings said the Government has been left red faced.
“The Legislative Council has once again pulled the Liberal Government into line,” Ms Giddings said.
“The Liberals’ short-sighted attempt to impose a tax on people using the justice system has been rejected 8 votes to 6.
“The Liberals are too arrogant with their numbers in the lower house to be bothered to listen to reasoned debate.
“Many of the arguments put forward by independent members of the upper house were aired by Labor MPs in the House of Assembly.
“The Australian Lawyers Alliance, The Law Society, Anglicare and TasCOSS all spoke out against the bill.
“Even Supreme Court Justice Stephen Estcourt publicly criticised a user-pays judicial system.
“The legislation took discretion away from judges and magistrates in the same way the Liberals’ plan to scrap suspended sentences would.
“The Liberals ‘get tough on crime’ agenda has been an unmitigated disaster.
“They’ve had to back down on changes to defamation laws and had a string of other ideas either quashed or heavily amended by the Legislative Council.
“Today’s vote is the latest failed foray into law reform by the Liberals.
“It again goes to show that one-line slogans do not translate into good public policy.”
Lara Giddings MP Shadow Attorney-General
