Page 3131 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 September 1993
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Mr Humphries was right in raising whether it is appropriate for politicians to be making decisions to let people out of gaol, and I think that is a substantial question that we will be addressing in due course.
There is an amendment which I foreshadowed. I had assumed that, when Mr Humphries and Ms Szuty were receiving a briefing, this would have been raised with them because it has been around for some weeks now. I apologise if it was not raised by the officers at that briefing. It is a comparatively minor matter. Under the Bill, where a prisoner is transferred to the Territory from another State the sentence is treated as imposed by a Territory court, and therefore any pardoning provisions apply as if it were an ACT sentence. The situation of a prisoner transferred from a non-participating Territory, an external Territory or Jervis Bay - there are hardly likely to be many of those, I would think - has to be treated differently because the interstate transfer of those prisoners is not a part of this uniform scheme. It still falls under Commonwealth legislation.
The Commonwealth is proposing to change its legislation, consequent upon our legislation, to provide for the Governor-General to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy in favour of prisoners transferred to the ACT from Jervis Bay or an external Territory, although why the Commonwealth Parliament should be troubling itself with such a matter, which is very unlikely to arise, is another question. In drafting this Bill we had mistakenly assumed that the ACT Executive would be able to grant that pardon. The proposed government amendment will correct this mistake by changing subclause 27(7) to omit the reference to the grant of pardon by the ACT Executive. Madam Speaker, I thank members for their support in general for the Bill.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail Stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.24): Madam Speaker, for the reasons I gave, I formally move the following amendment to subclause 27(7):
Page 20, subclause 27(7), lines 10 to 17, omit all the words after "Territory,", substitute "but that does not prevent the Governor-General from exercising the royal prerogative of mercy pursuant to subsection 24(2) of the Commonwealth Act in relation to that conviction".
Amendment agreed to.
Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
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