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package of changes in law that we manage to put on the statute book. And Dr Mackay and others remain the main strength in the last stage effort to complete the exercise.
In introducing the Bill, the Attorney General has
given a compassionate and detailed description of its objectives, and mechanism.
Suffice it to say that the Ad Hoc
Group set up by the Legislative Council, after 3 sessions of discussions, accepts the bill after the following
clarifications were made :
(a)
(b)
(c)
(a)
(e)
the protection given by this Bill should extend to spouse of a marriage or a cohabitee but exclude violence towards the older generation in the family, although we shall be monitering closely the incidence of abuse of the elderly and seek other remedies;
that we keep the age limit of the "child" at 21 instead of 18 so that more children of a family can enjoy the protection (Clause 2(1));
cohabitees (Clause 2 (2)) should also be protected and the court be allowed to decide whether the relationship is a permanent one or
not;
that the victim can obtain an injunction after proving that she has been molested, or, in effect, threatened with molestation (Clause
3(1));
that actual bodily harm has to be proved, as opposed to a threat, to justify attaching a power of arrest to an injunction (Clause 5(1));