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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 3676 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I move:

The Periodic Detention Amendment Bill 1999 makes two straightforward amendments to the Periodic Detention Act. Members will be aware that the Act sets out a scheme for the periodic detention of certain offenders. Detention periods are served on weekends, with detainees reporting on Friday evenings and being released from detention on Sunday afternoons. The amendments to the Bill are to clarify that, when a person who is subject to a periodic detention order is sentenced to a period of imprisonment of more than one year, the periodic detention order is cancelled. They provide that, where a periodic detainee is in custody and, as a result, is unable to serve a detention period, the detainee will be credited with having served the detention period.

These amendments recognise some practical realities. The first is that, if a person in respect of whom a periodic detention order is in force, is in custody, it is not possible for the person to serve his or her periodic detention. This may occur, for example, where a person is remanded in custody in respect of a further offence. The Bill provides that a person in custody for the duration of a detention period will be taken to have served that detention period. This is similar to the provision in corresponding New South Wales legislation dealing with detainees who are in custody.

However, the Government has declined to extend the operation of this new provision to detainees who spend only part of a detention period in custody. They will remain liable to serve the whole of the relevant detention period. To credit a detainee with having served a detention period where the detainee has been in custody for part of the detention period would be open to potential abuse. For example, a periodic detainee could go on a drinking binge on a Friday night, be detained in police custody and released on Saturday after sobering up, and be at large for the remainder of the weekend. Because the detainee would have been in custody for part of the detention period, he or she would be credited with serving the relevant detention period.

If a detainee who was in custody for the first part of his or her detention period turned up to serve the balance of the detention period after being released from custody, this would give rise to operational difficulties. ACT detention periods commence on Friday evenings and conclude on Sunday afternoons. All detainees are required to report on Friday evening. There is a nurse on duty when detainees report to ensure that detainees who may be ill or intoxicated are identified and appropriate action can be taken. There would be no such person available to examine detainees turning up at random times after release from custody. For these reasons, the Government will not be crediting detainees who have been in custody for part of a detention period with having served the relevant detention period.

The other change made by the Bill is that, where a periodic detainee is sentenced to a term of imprisonment exceeding one month, the periodic detention order in respect of the detainee will be automatically cancelled. This provision acknowledges that there is little point in a periodic detention order remaining in force where a person is sentenced to

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