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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (2 April) . . Page.. 1204 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

our Crimes Act which reflect discussions on a national criminal code, we are consistent with New South Wales.

From around section 90 onwards, there are some offences which deal with minor theft-that is, the theft of an item worth less than $1,000. After much reflection by the committee I was working with, these have been omitted. That was on the advice of several lawyers assisting the committee and after the representations, especially, of the Australian Federal Police.

There have been a number of problems associated with the prosecution of these offences. There is a concern that they may not be terribly effective, and I accept that. I think it is artificial to have a different section simply because the value of an item is under a certain amount. Of course, courts can take any relevant factors into consideration. There was a concern that these sections were somewhat superfluous. They have been there for a long time and, on balance, there was not a strong justification to leave them there.

Standard non-parole periods have recently been introduced in New South Wales, by Premier Bob Carr. Mr Speaker, I think it is important that the ACT follows suit here, as they ensure a good reflection of community values and a much more realistic tariff for a middle-range offence.

I stress, as indeed Premier Carr did when he introduced his legislation some months ago, that they are not mandatory sentences. A court can in fact deviate from them, if they feel there are sufficiently extenuating or mitigating circumstances-which in my legislation are defined along the same lines as they are in the New South Wales act.

Standard non-parole periods highlighted in my bill include murder-the special category-which is 25 years, where the offence arose because of the victim's occupation, such as police officer, nurse, teacher, emergency services worker, corrective services officer, judicial officer, doctor or community officer.

Murder in other cases, 20 years; attempted murder, 10 years; gang rape-again section 51 (2)-15 years; intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm, five years; aggravated armed robbery, seven years. For a good definition of what aggravation is, see my definition in relation to the new offence of car-jacking.

Aggravated burglary-if there is a serious injury caused to the person, seven years; normal car-jacking, two years-or if committed in aggravating circumstances, five years.

One offence that is not in Bob Carr's repertoire is that of burglary. He adds several which I do not replicate-in fact, I have less there than he has. Here, in this bill, if an offender has committed a burglary offence, and been convicted of that in the previous five years, there is a standard two-year non-parole period.

Supplying drugs is of great concern. If someone supplies more than 50 times the trafficable quantity of a drug such as heroin, it will be 15 years; supplying more than 30 but less than 50 times the trafficable quantity, 10 years; supplying more than 20 but less than 30 times the trafficable quantity, five years.

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