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Salient. Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 23. September 20, 1976

McBride and Westbrooke Into the Act

McBride and Westbrooke Into the Act

John McBride scorned the Act as a "catch law" used to convict people if they couldn't be nabbed for anything else. Ian Westbrooke - "We should support people and their civil liberties" by funding counsel. On the same note, though sardonically, Mr Hannan said it was wrong to avoid the case just because we didn't like the un-middleclass lifestyle of the people involved. Simon Tracy spoke against the funds, with John Ryall and Bob Drummond in favour.

Many speeches had attempted to show [unclear: h w] the Unlawful Assembly Act rode roughshod over the civil liberties of innocent people. Thus, the shifting balance of the vote depended on Mr Spence's final speech in reply : he urged students to leave the case alone and have confidence in the courts, since, "if these people cause distress, they deserve to be charged."

However, in this way, he failed to healthily answer the essential question of civil rights, as well as the instance of student arrests at Weedons. Hence his motion not to fund the accused in their case against an unlawful assembly charge, was defeated, albeit narrowly, 96 - 108 votes. Thus, students now have a vested interest in following the court reports from Lower Hutt.