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March 29, 2024

Empowering Ummah

ABN 98 163 220 438

Bill back down

The controversial criminal investigation (Identifying People) 2013 bill introduced in WA State Parliament on 8 August 2013 will be re-drafted and further debate on the Bill is suspended. The local news media such as CHANNEL 7 News , 6PR, SBS Radio and social media reported it as an ‘ anti-Burqa Bill’ when this is  not the  intent of the legislation according to WA State government.

Hansard debates  made references to a 2010  NSW Muslim woman’s traffic offense case  and the proposed  changes to Section 16 (4A) c & d of the Legislation citing Burqa as an example. This  may have helped the media to create alarm in the community.

The Muslim and Sikh delegates to the meeting raised objections word “head” for photo identifying purposes proposed in the bill. This was suggested as too imprecise a word that can lead variety of problems.  Instead it was reasoned that it should have read “face” for accuracy and concise meaning without reducing the intent of the proposed legislation to fight crime.

The Minister for Police Hon Liz Harvey and Deputy Commissioner of WA Police Cmdr Chris Dawson reassured delegates of  WA Muslim and Sikh communities at a Parliament meeting that the principal intent of amendments to the legislation is to fight  criminals who conceal their identities.

The amendments aims to improve criminal forensic investigations and  is not directed at any section of the community in Western Australia.

Photo credit: kakhunwart / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA
Photo credit: kakhunwart / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA