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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (7 September) . . Page.. 3101 ..

Clauses 24 to 28, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.

Clause 29 agreed to.

Clauses 30 to 33, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.

MR SPEAKER: Members would be aware that a number of Mr Stanhope's subsequent amendments were contingent on the passage of earlier amendments.

Clause 29-Recommittal.

Mr Stanhope: I am sorry, Mr Speaker, but you were too speedy for me. I seek leave to have clause 29 recommitted.

Leave granted.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.43): Clause 29 of the bill is the issue which has caused some of the difficulties that I have had with the legislation and some of the concern I have had about its extent and scope. As I said before, and I will repeat it for the sake of this provision, it seems to me that clauses 23, 29 and 34 were designed to ensure that a forensic procedure could be carried out only on a serious offender. I believe that clauses 23 and 34 achieve that purpose. I do not, however, believe that clause 29 does achieve that purpose.

Clause 29, which is about the taking of non-intimate forensic procedures by order of a police officer, provides that in certain circumstances a police officer may take a sample from a person in relation to an offence. That is what it says. That is what subparagraphs (1)(b)(ii) and (iii) of clause 29 say by extension. There is absolutely no other interpretation of those subparagraphs than that they allow in a certain circumstance for a non-intimate forensic sample to be taken on the order of a police officer in relation to an offence.

An offence is defined in the dictionary as meaning an offence against a law in force in the territory. That is what an offence is. It is an offence against a law in force in the territory. It is not an indictable offence. It is not a serious offence. It is an offence against a law in force in the territory. In the circumstances of subparagraphs (1)(b)(ii) and (iii) of clause 29 a police officer can order a forensic procedure to be carried out on an offender.

That is contrary to everything that the Attorney has told us. The Attorney has been spouting long and loud that this legislation applies only to serious offenders. The Attorney has said that there is not a single circumstance in which this legislation can apply to anybody other than a serious offender, but there is. Subparagraphs (1)(b)(ii) and (iii) of clause 29 allow for forensic procedures in certain circumstances, perhaps extreme.

I do not fully understand the circumstances in which they would arise. Perhaps that is part of the difficulty I have; I do not understand the circumstances in which one would find oneself in this situation. Either it is a drafting mistake or there is some deliberate intent to allow the taking of forensic samples against a broader class of offender or

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