Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 3313 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Page 5, line 4, clause 6, proposed new paragraph 19I(5)(b), omit "authorised".

Page 5, line 13, clause 6, proposed new subparagraph 19I(7)(b)(i), omit "authorised".

Page 5, line 19, clause 6, proposed new subsection 19I(8), omit "authorised".

Page 6, line 3, clause 6, proposed new subsection 19L(1), omit "an authorised", substitute "a".

Page 6, line 6, clause 6, proposed new subsection 19L(2), omit "an authorised", substitute "a".

Mr Speaker, I have circulated these amendments and an explanatory note regarding them. As members will see, the effect of the amendments is to enable a police officer, any police officer, to apply for an emergency protection order.

Mr Stanhope has expressed a concern about people being detained by the police while an order is being sought. If he has that concern about this legislation, fine. It follows from that that we want to address that concern. What we should do, therefore, is increase the efficacy of the process of obtaining an order so that a person's period of detention is reduced to the shortest period possible.

The legislation presently requires that a sergeant or officer of sergeant or above rank be the person who seeks the order from a magistrate. What these amendments do is allow any police officer to seek such an order. That means that if an officer happens to be on the scene of a domestic violence incident and wants to get immediate protection, he or she can get on the telephone to a magistrate, if they can, and obtain the necessary order over the telephone without having to get in touch with the local sergeant and obtain his or her permission, or go back to the station and get somebody else of higher rank to be able to obtain that order.

I assume that I will have support from members of this place on the basis that they have expressed concerns about detaining people for up to four hours. This will not necessarily make a big difference, but it will in some cases allow a person to be detained for a shorter period because a multi-skilled police officer out in the field is able to make an application without having to go through a sergeant or somebody of above rank.

MR SPEAKER: Would you mind presenting the explanatory memorandum, Minister?

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I present the supplementary explanatory memorandum.

Amendments agreed to.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .