Page 4380 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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What is it going to add to the process of diverting those young people's activities and changing their behaviour, Mr Cornwell, if we give the court the ability to make their parents pay for the consequences of their damage rather than make the offenders pay for the consequences of their damage? It has always been an option in criminal court sentencing to make a reparation order against the offender. But Mr Cornwell's proposal is to direct the reparation order not against the offender, but against the offender's parents. If you want to follow that principle - and we do not - you should significantly modify the legislation that you have. It is true that other States have this type of legislation; I acknowledge that. You should modify it in the following ways. You should provide a right of appeal, as they do in New South Wales. Mrs Carnell nods; but that is not done in the Bill that her party is bringing before the Assembly today. Mrs Carnell nods, indicating that there should be a right of appeal, but says, "Oops; we forgot about that. That is a mere bagatelle. Do not bother me with details".
We should also ensure that the issue of guardians is addressed. This Bill refers to parents. What is the situation where a child is in the custody not of a parent but of a legal guardian and they offend? Whom do you hold responsible? The theory behind Mr Cornwell's Bill is that the person who has control of the child should be controlling the child's behaviour, and therefore you should be able to hold that person liable. So, logically, one would think that, where a child is in the custody or control of a guardian rather than their parents, you would hold the guardian responsible, rather than the parent, in these punitive orders. Again, the Liberals say, "Do not bother us with details". They have not looked carefully at the interstate models that they are purporting to model their legislation on; they just make a broad statement. If you accept the principle, the Government would say that the legislation is flawed, but the Government does not accept the principle.
We also say that where this legislation has been put in place in other States it is virtually never used; it is ineffective. In what is regarded as the leading text on law relating to parental responsibilities - a publication by Ms Gamble, Law for Parents and Children, published by the Law Book Co. in 1986 - the statement has been made that in practice the New South Wales provisions do not present a real threat, as an almost reprehensible lack of control has to be shown to warrant the making of the order. People who have looked at the application of this law in States where it exists have found that it is never really applied; that the courts are mindful of what could happen if you applied it literally. You were scoffing when I said that the literal consequences of this could be that if a child burns a school down the parents could have their home sold out from underneath them. Of course, a not particularly pleasant young child with behavioural problems and possibly no great love and affection for their parents - they often tend to go together - may think, "What a jolly fine idea! If I go and burn that school down my parents will be held financially responsible".
Again, I hear a little chuckle from the other side; but, Madam Speaker, anybody who knows about behavioural problems in youth in the community - and a number of members present sat on the Social Policy Committee in the previous Assembly when it looked at this problem of persistently misbehaving youth, of youth with major behavioural problems - would know that some of the youths who engage in this sort of behaviour, sadly for them, have parents who do not give a damn, parents who wilfully ignore them. They usually respond in kind with loathing and contempt for their parents, and here we are giving them the trigger because we have - - -
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