Page 3794 - Week 14 - Thursday, 10 December 1992
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CRIMES (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 4) 1992
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.42): Mr Deputy Speaker, I present the Crimes (Amendment) Bill (No. 4) 1992.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Crimes (Amendment) Bill (No. 4) 1992 will amend the Crimes Act 1900 to provide for a right to the assistance of an interpreter in a person the subject of questioning in an investigation into a summary offence in the Territory.
The Bill repeals section 354 of the principal Act and substitutes a new section 354 which will apply the provisions of Part 1C of the Commonwealth Crimes Act 1914. Part 1C of the Commonwealth Act, which was inserted into the Commonwealth Act by the Crimes (Investigation of Commonwealth Offences) Amendment Act 1991 (Commonwealth), provides for the requirement of the provision of an interpreter in the course of the questioning of persons in respect of certain offences. Part 1C of the Commonwealth Act applies to the investigation of offences in the Territory punishable by imprisonment for a period exceeding 12 months; that is, indictable offences. This means that the Commonwealth Act provides for a requirement to provide an interpreter in the investigation of an indictable offence in the Territory. However, Part 1C does not apply to the investigation of offences in the Territory punishable on summary conviction.
In order that the assistance of an interpreter is required in the investigation of summary offences in the Territory, this Bill will apply section 23N of the Commonwealth Crimes Act to the investigation of summary offences in the Territory. There are, of course, considerable advantages in the Australian Federal Police, who, as members will know, provide for the policing of the Territory under contract, working under one set of requirements in relation to the provision of interpreters in the investigation of offences. It is primarily for this reason that the relevant provisions of the Commonwealth Act have been adopted. Section 23N of the Commonwealth Crimes Act requires an investigating official, including a member of the Australian Federal Police, who believes on reasonable grounds that a person under arrest in respect of an offence is unable to communicate orally in English with reasonable fluency, whether by reason of an inadequate knowledge of English or a physical disability, to defer questioning or investigation until he or she has arranged for, and awaited the arrival of, a competent interpreter.
The reference to "a person under arrest" includes a person who has been lawfully arrested, and, by virtue of the application in the Bill of subsection 23B(1) of the Commonwealth Act, includes a reference to a person who is in the company of an investigating official for the purposes of being questioned if the official believes that there is sufficient evidence to establish that the person has committed an
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