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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1263 ..
(c) the person consents to the making of the order.'.".
Amendment (Mr Humphries' ) agreed to.
Schedule 1, as amended, agreed to.
Remainder of bill, by leave, taken as a whole and agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.55): Mr Speaker, this bill was introduced by the Attorney-General on 25 November 1999. It inserts a new section 28A into the Periodic Detention Act 1995 and amends section 29. The new section 28A permits a person already subject to a periodic detention order who is arrested and held in custody for a whole detention period to be taken to have served the detention period. A detention period is defined in the act but in practice means from 7 pm on Friday to 4.30 pm on Sunday. As an example, this proposed new section applies to a person already subject to a weekend detention order being arrested for another offence on Friday and kept in police custody until a court appearance on Monday morning. In that case the person is deemed, by this new provision, to have served their weekend detention, even though in custody for another offence.
The section 29 amendment provides that, where a person who is subject to a periodic detention order is committed to prison for another offence for a period of one month or more, the periodic detention order is automatically cancelled. Where the new sentence is for less than one month, the court has a discretion to cancel the periodic detention order.
Both provisions seem fair to periodic detainees and, as the Attorney said in his presentation speech, recognise some practical realities in the administration of the periodic detention scheme. However, there are some other practical difficulties that are not addressed in the legislation, and to some extent perhaps it would be difficult to address some of them legislatively. I note, for instance, from the last quarterly output report from the Attorney's department that attendee numbers at the Periodic Detention Centre are continuing to climb. In answer to a question on notice, the Attorney has informed me that offenders are permitted two absences before they are breached. In the event that the offender does not comply with a third and final notice, breach action is initiated.
The Attorney also informed me that, in the 12 months ended 1 April 2000, 23 offenders had their sentences extended by one period for non-attendance, 46 offenders had their sentences extended by two periods for non-attendance, and leave of absence was granted on 117 occasions. Given that offenders are permitted three absences before being
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