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Speaker 1: Anyone out there right hands up who doesn't agree with

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Speaker 1: the Justice Minister's plan to introduce harsher punishments for people

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Speaker 1: who assault first responders. I feel like this is a

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Speaker 1: complete no brainer. I mean, there are some out there

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Speaker 1: who would argue that no assault is acceptable at all,

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Speaker 1: and that if you create two tiers of punishment where

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Speaker 1: you've got the police officers on one level and then

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Speaker 1: the normal humans on another, what you're saying is that

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Speaker 1: some assaults are more acceptable than others. And that's a

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Speaker 1: fair argument to make. But I think reality has a

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Speaker 1: role to play here, and the reality is different, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: The reality is you and I. Regular citizens can just

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Speaker 1: walk away if we see something happening. There's somebody who

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Speaker 1: needs a bit of help, but we can see it's

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Speaker 1: not safe, we can just keep ongoing. First responders can't.

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Speaker 1: For police and ambo workers in the fire surface, it

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Speaker 1: is their job to go into those situations that are

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Speaker 1: often quite risky because people are upset, or people have

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Speaker 1: been substance abusing or whatever, and having a different level

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Speaker 1: of offense for them is an acknowledgment. I think that

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Speaker 1: they face greater risk, so they should have greater protection. Now, Obviously,

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Speaker 1: just attaching a higher punishment to it doesn't and it's

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Speaker 1: necessarily going to deter someone from doing something, especially if

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Speaker 1: they're off the face and they're making bad decisions. But

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Speaker 1: I I would be surprised if it doesn't have an

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Speaker 1: effect over time as the punishments start coming in. I

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Speaker 1: suspect it will have an impact, the impact of making

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Speaker 1: first defenders and no go I find it hard to

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Speaker 1: believe that anybody would assult an ambulance worker because I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, is there anybody who was there to help

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Speaker 1: you more than an ambulance worker. They're not there to

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Speaker 1: arrest you, they're just there to help you. But it happens.

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Speaker 1: At the last count, there were twelve assaults on ambulance

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Speaker 1: workers every single week, and that was before COVID, so probably,

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Speaker 1: like everything since then, I imagine the numbers would have

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Speaker 1: gone up. But here's the question I have about this, right,

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Speaker 1: this is not a new idea. From what I can see,

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Speaker 1: this idea was first pitched by New Zealand first seven

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Speaker 1: years ago. It got to a second reading, never went

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Speaker 1: any further, same as with the Cowards Punch, which has

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Speaker 1: just been announced today. First pitch seven years ago on

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Speaker 1: the face of it, I would say a good idea.

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Speaker 1: So why does it take so long for good ideas

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Speaker 1: to become law? For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.