Debate on The Grauburg Prisons Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1974 · col. 15981

The Speaker: The question before the House is that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. I call the Minister.

Dieter Prill (Minister of Justice): I beg to move that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. The Ministry of Justice has consulted the courts. The judges have no objection to the Bill and one of them has read it. I read the material clause to the House. Penalty on conviction: a fine of 61 marka or 6 months. I move.

Andrea Honzel (Norrfeld; The Assembly Union): Speaker, The liberty of the subject is a large phrase for a small Bill, but I use it, because the Bill is small and the liberty is not. The penalty is severe. The offence is common. The House may draw its own conclusion. Norrfeld has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. I oppose the third reading. [Shame.]

Heinz Zorn (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Speaker, Every Bill of this kind adds a form, a fee and a clerk. The Assembly Union would like, once in a session, to pass a Bill that removes one. The Capital District has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. I have no quarrel with the Bill except that it comes twenty years late. The clause is short and I shall not read it. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it.

Anja Wendl (The Capital District; The Continuity Party): Speaker, My constituents in The Capital District wrote to me about the Bill, all 9 of them, and they were against it until they read it. The Continuity Party supports every measure that keeps the record whole and opposes every measure that does not. This one keeps it whole. The material provision is this: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 61 marka or 6 months. I ask the House to note it. The courts have asked for the Bill and the courts should have it. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

Kerstin Hallin (The Sudmark; The Reed Party): Mr. Speaker, In The Sudmark, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. I ask the Minister one thing: does the Bill send an officer out to the farms, and if it does, who feeds him? The clause is short and I shall not read it. The courts have asked for the Bill and the courts should have it. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

The Minister replied briefly. The fee was as printed; the officer was as printed; the House had the Bill and could read it.

The Speaker: The question is that the Bill be now read a third time and do pass. As many as are of that opinion say Aye. [Ayes.] Of the contrary, No. [Noes.] A division was claimed.

The Speaker declared the Ayes to have it and the Bill was passed.

The House proceeded to other business.