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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4341 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I will give you an illustration of how difficult these situations can be. A couple of years ago, I was approached by the friend of a person sentenced from an ACT court to a term of imprisonment in a New South Wales gaol. This prisoner was nearing the end of his term of imprisonment and had been given access to special weekend release, which meant that he could leave the gaol on a weekend, go away and spend it with friends or family and come back to the gaol on Sunday night or Monday morning. The person's friend lived in Canberra and wanted to have the person come and stay with him in Canberra. Of course, at that stage there was not legislation like this; so, it was not possible for the prisoner to come into another jurisdiction. He would be crossing a boundary - a border. He would be breaching the terms of his special leave. I said to him, "Why do you not arrange to spend time in Queanbeyan?". He said, "The problem with that is that there is no way of getting to Queanbeyan that does not entail passing through the ACT". When you think about it, that is true. All the roads that lead to Queanbeyan pass through the ACT. So, this poor person had no way of getting access, either in Canberra or in Queanbeyan, to his friend. I think they had to make arrangements to meet at somewhere like Yass or Goulburn in order to facilitate that weekend release. Legislation like this will solve those sorts of problems. Mr Speaker, some issues have been raised by Mr Moore, and I will deal with those in the detail stage.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Bill, by leave, taken as a whole

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (8.09): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move together the amendments circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I move:

Page 3, line 27, clause 6, paragraph (2)(e), delete ".", substitute ";".

Page 3, line 27, clause 6, after paragraph (2)(e), add the following new paragraphs:

"(f) to assist a police officer of the ACT or another state or territory with the investigation of an offence;

"(g) for any other purpose described in the Regulations.".

The amendments provide for a further level of flexibility in granting leave. As Mr Moore observed, there are occasions when it might be the wish of an interstate police force to question an individual in respect of an offence or alleged offence that might have occurred in another jurisdiction.

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