Page 3835 - Week 14 - Thursday, 10 December 1992
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ADJOURNMENT
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! It being 4.30 pm, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr Berry: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
BAIL (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1992
Debate resumed.
MR HUMPHRIES: As I indicated at that time, the Liberal Party is generally pretty unhappy about considering Bills in a very short space of time. After all, the public as a whole in the Territory also gets to see Bills for the first time when they are tabled here. But we acknowledge that there was a serious and apparently unforeseen error in the Bail Bill which was passed earlier this year and which came into force last Saturday. It is quite clear that there is a serious problem with the legislation, and it obviously needs to be fixed very quickly.
This Bill quite simply removes offences against section 27 of the Domestic Violence Act and offences against section 206L of the Magistrates Court Act from the operation of section 7 of the Bail Act. In other words, with the passage of this legislation, it will no longer be the case that a person breaching a domestic violence order will have an automatic right to bail. Instead, that person will need to seek bail from a court or from a police officer. Madam Speaker, clearly, that is an important measure designed to protect people in the community who are covered by protection orders. It is clearly those people who are vulnerable; it is clearly those people who are at most risk if the present situation remains uncorrected. I believe that it would be unacceptable even to leave this matter until next week. As a result, my party is prepared to support this Bill.
The Minister has, of course, created some capacity to deal with any further errors which might be detected in the Act by providing that certain offences as may be prescribed shall be outside the operation of section 7 of the Bail Act. As the Minister pointed out yesterday during his presentation speech, it will of course be possible for the Assembly to disallow such a regulation. The Assembly in that situation has the power to prevent any paring back of the right of people generally in the Territory to receive bail in certain circumstances.
Madam Speaker, it would be of benefit for us to pass this Bill today. It will restore the situation which existed before the Bail Act came into force last Saturday, and I believe that the protection it affords will be in tune with the general trend of the Territory to extend and consolidate protection, particularly for women, who are obviously increasingly at risk of domestic violence.
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