17 Oct 2017
Statutes Amendment (Recidivist and Repeat Offenders) Bill – Committee Stage & Third Reading
In committee.
Clause 1.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I appreciate the minister’s comments in the second reading summing-up and that the Labor Party has agreed to those two amendments. The Liberal Party has made a decision to amend and push forward with all the amendments and, in this instance, as the lead speaker of the bill, I am bound by those instructions. It is the Liberal Party’s view that these amendments are the best option, given a difficult set of circumstances, and that allowing for a child over the age of 16 to be considered a high-risk offender is the appropriate course of action, given what we know about the circumstances.
I reiterate to members of the chamber that we do not know the full set of circumstances. We do not have the benefit of the knowledge that certain members of the government have, and we have to act in accordance with our consciences on the information that we have before us; therefore we will be pursuing the amendments.
Just in relation to one matter, on a personal level, that the Hon. Kyam Maher raised: if I offended him I apologise. I am very passionate about this issue. I have a strong lifelong commitment to rehabilitation and it pains me greatly to see bills like this pass through. I worry that all of us do not have enough public commitment to rehabilitation and to taking the public with us. Perhaps I could have been more temperate.
That said, I understand that whilst technically the amendments are not all consequential, we are going to treat the first clause as a test—
The Hon. K.J. Maher: And divide once, on that first clause.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: We will divide, yes, and then I understand that we will know where we stand. I move:
Amendment No 1 [McLachlan–1]—
Page 2, line 4—Delete ‘Statutes Amendment (Recidivist and Repeat Offenders)’ and substitute:
Criminal Law (High Risk Offenders) (Young Offenders) Amendment
The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: The Greens will be supporting this amendment. As I have said, we do not like the bill at all, but these amendments make the bill more palatable, so we will be supporting all the Liberal amendments.
The Hon. K.J. MAHER: As indicated in the second reading speech, on all but the sunset and review, the government will be opposing those. I will not go into details except to say that we consider the suite of amendments render what we think the bill needs to do inoperable, so we will be voting against it. I indicate we will be dividing on this first one to establish that but agree that this can be a test clause for the rest of those, save the sunset and review clauses.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I acknowledge my agreement to what the Hon. Kyam Maher said.
The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: I indicate that I will not be supporting this amendment.
The committee divided on the amendment:
Ayes 10
Noes 9
Majority 1
| AYES | ||
| Dawkins, J.S.L. | Franks, T.A. | Lee, J.S. |
| Lucas, R.I. | McLachlan, A.L. (teller) | Parnell, M.C. |
| Ridgway, D.W. | Stephens, T.J. | Vincent, K.L. |
| Wade, S.G. | ||
| NOES | ||
| Brokenshire, R.L. | Darley, J.A. | Gago, G.E. |
| Hanson, J.E. | Hood, D.G.E. | Hunter, I.K. |
| Maher, K.J. (teller) | Malinauskas, P. | Ngo, T.T. |
| PAIRS | ||
| Lensink, J.M.A. | Gazzola, J.M. | |
Amendment thus carried; clause as amended passed.
Clause 2.
The CHAIR: I put that clause 2, being these are all consequential, stand as printed.
Clause negatived.
Clause 3 passed.
Clause 4.
The CHAIR: Amendment No. 3 [McLachlan-1] is seeking to delete clause 4.
Clause negatived.
Clause 5.
The CHAIR: The next amendment is No. 4 [McLachlan-1].
Clause negatived.
Clause 6.
The CHAIR: The next one is amendment No. 5 [McLachlan-1], which is to clause 6.
Clause negatived.
Clause 7.
The CHAIR: Amendment No. 6 [McLachlan-1], clause 7, is to delete, of course.
Clause negatived.
Clause 8.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I move:
Amendment No 7 [McLachlan–1]—
Page 4, lines 10 and 11 [clause 8(2), inserted subsection (2)]—
Delete ‘a recidivist young offender’ and substitute ‘of or above the age of 16 years as at the time an application for an extended supervision order is made’
Amendment carried.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I move:
Amendment No 8 [McLachlan–1]—
Page 4, after line 12 [clause 8(2)]—After inserted subsection (2) insert:
(3) For the avoidance of doubt, for the purposes of subsection (2) it does not matter how old the youth was at the time of commission of the relevant offences.
(4) However, after 1 July 2019—
(a) the Supreme Court may not make an order under this Act in relation to a youth (despite subsection (2)); and
(b) an extended supervision order made under this Act in relation to a youth in accordance with subsection (2) ceases to be of any force or effect.
Amendment carried; clause as amended passed.
Clause 9 passed.
Clause 10.
The CHAIR: The next amendment is amendment No. 9 [McLachlan-1] to clause 10 to delete the clause.
Clause negatived.
Clause 11.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I move:
Amendment No 10 [McLachlan–1]—
Page 5, line 33—Delete ‘the relevant offence was’ and substitute ‘any relevant offences were’
Amendment carried; clause as amended passed.
Clauses 12 to 25 negatived.
New schedule 1.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I move:
Amendment No 11 [McLachlan–1]—
Page 5, line 35 to page 12, line 14—Delete Parts 4 and 5 and substitute ‘Schedule 1—Review’
1—Review of Act
(1) The Attorney-General must undertake a review of the operation and effectiveness of the amendments effected by this Act.
(2) The review required under this clause must commence not later that 1 January 2019.
(3) The Attorney-General must prepare a report based on the review and must, within 12 sitting days after the report is prepared, cause copies of the report to be laid before each House of Parliament.
New schedule inserted.
Long title.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: I move:
Amendment No 12 [McLachlan–1]—Long title—
Delete ‘Bail Act 1985; the Criminal Law (High Risk Offenders) Act 2015; the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988; and the Sentencing Act 2017′ and substitute ‘Criminal Law (High Risk Offenders) Act 2015’
Amendment carried; long title as amended passed.
Bill reported with amendment.
Third Reading
The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (18:37): I move:
That this bill be now read a third time.
I will make a very quick comment. As I outlined to the chamber before, this bill was about a measure to protect the community. We accept that amendments were carried by this committee. We consider that they render what the bill was supposed to do effectively useless. We do not think the bill, with the amendments that were accepted, would protect the community as we wished. In our view, the bill in its amended form has nothing to do, so we will be voting against the third reading.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN (18:38): I will set out the Liberal Party’s position. The Liberal Party will obviously be supporting the third reading of the bill as amended. It is our view that the amendments are measured and would have provided, in the circumstances to the extent that we are aware, an opportunity for appropriate applications to be made in relation to the youth if the passage of this bill went through.
The council divided on the third reading:
Ayes 7
Noes 12
Majority 5
| AYES | ||
| Dawkins, J.S.L. | Lee, J.S. | Lucas, R.I. |
| McLachlan, A.L. (teller) | Ridgway, D.W. | Stephens, T.J. |
| Wade, S.G. | ||
| NOES | ||
| Brokenshire, R.L. | Darley, J.A. | Franks, T.A. |
| Gago, G.E. | Hanson, J.E. | Hood, D.G.E. |
| Hunter, I.K. | Maher, K.J. (teller) | Malinauskas, P. |
| Ngo, T.T. | Parnell, M.C. | Vincent, K.L. |
| PAIRS | ||
| Lensink, J.M.A. | Gazzola, J.M. | |
Third reading thus negatived.
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