Page 5199 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
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to whether the accused will appear on the appointed day to stand trial; matters concerning the accused's interests, especially his or her physical or mental state, his or her employment, whether there are any dependants who will be affected, and the need to prepare a defence; and matters relating to the community's interests, that is, to ensure that the accused stands trial and that no-one tries to subvert the course of justice. None of these criteria are new, as they are all well-established common law principles.
Bail will be contingent on the accused signing a written undertaking to appear in court when required. It will be an offence punishable by a maximum fine of $20,000 or two years in gaol to fail to honour these undertakings. This threat of criminal sanctions will replace forfeiture of a sum of money as the primary means of enforcing bail.
As a rule, it is preferable for bail to be granted unconditionally, but in some cases conditions are necessary - for example, the accused has to report periodically to the police or must stay away from a particular person or premises. The Bill spells out the purposes for which conditions may be attached to bail. It exhaustively lists the only conditions which a court or authorised police officer may impose, lists those conditions in a descending hierarchy and directs that the least onerous condition which achieves one of the permissible purposes is the one to be imposed.
The hierarchy of conditions ranges from those regulating the conduct of the accused to a requirement that a third party - in effect, a surety - deposit a sum of money which will be forfeited if the accused breaches bail. Some conditions are in the accused's best interests. For example, for the first time a court has a clear statutory authority to order an offender who is a drug addict to attend a rehabilitation program as a condition of bail. The accused may ask for a more onerous condition if that is more convenient. For example, an accused may prefer to deposit a sum of money.
Often an accused person stays in custody because he or she does not know about bail or feels that it is all too bewildering and complex to bother about. To avoid that as much as possible, the Bill imposes a duty on the arresting police officer to notify an accused of his or her rights to apply for bail and what the procedure involves. "Notification of rights" here includes access to a lawyer, an interpreter or, in appropriate cases, a relative or friend.
Mr Stefaniak: You will find that they all know that anyway.
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