Page 3977 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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I would like to refer specifically to recommendation No. 1 in the committee's report. Recommendation No. 1 was that the penalty review principles be incorporated in a preamble to the Bill. I understand from the Government's response to this matter that the Government did not agree that that was a very sensible course of action to take. In hindsight, I would agree with the direction that the Government has taken in response to this matter. I do not think that committee members at the time really envisaged what this Statute Law Revision (Penalties) Bill was about. It is actually aiming to amend a whole series of Acts in specific ways. Therefore, it is fairly pointless to have a preamble to this Bill sitting somewhere in isolation. However, the Parliamentary Counsel did go to the trouble of preparing a suggested preamble to such a Bill. For the record, I would like to read it into Hansard so that it is there in the Assembly records for people to refer to in future. The proposed preamble would have said:
WHEREAS it is desirable that in provisions of legislation creating offences the following principles should be followed as far as practicable.
1. The maximum penalty for an offence should be set out at the foot of the provision.
2. A minimum penalty should not be prescribed.
3. The maximum penalty for an offence should reflect the seriousness of the offence relative to other offences of a similar nature, recognising that it is the role of a court to determine the appropriate penalty in a particular case.
4. The maximum penalty for an offence should be a fine of $100 or a multiple of that amount in the case of an individual or $500 or a multiple of that amount in the case of a body corporate or, for a more serious offence, imprisonment for a period of not less than 6 months.
5. Where applicable, the ratio between fines and imprisonment should be such that a fine of $5,000 corresponds to imprisonment for a period of 6 months.
6. A penalty of imprisonment should be prescribed only for an offence involving an element of 1 or more of the following (either actual or implied):
. dishonesty;
. abuse of authority or trust;
. violence;
. endangerment of life or property;
. perversion;
. obstruction of justice or law enforcement;
. subversion;
. activities similar to those mentioned above.
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