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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4898 ..

MR SPEAKER: Thank you. The question is that Mr Pratt's amendments be agreed to.

MR PRATT: Can I finish my speech?

Mrs Dunne: Yes, keep going.

Ms Gallagher: Yes, go on. We understand the point.

MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Pratt has the floor.

Mr Quinlan: Yes, but does he know it?

MR PRATT: You would not think certain members were listening, Mr Quinlan.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Pratt, do you want to speak to these two amendments?

MR PRATT: Mr Speaker, last night the government rejected attempts to amend the Crimes Act to up the ante on the maximum for manslaughter to 25 years. We cannot have two standards. If we are going to have two separate manslaughters then we had better make sure they conform.

Bearing in mind the definition in section 15 of manslaughter, the aim of this amendment is to at least make these two offences conform. The definition of manslaughter in section 15 is as follows:

(1) Except where a law expressly provides otherwise, an unlawful homicide that is not, by virtue of section 12, murder shall be taken to be manslaughter.

(2) A person who commits manslaughter is guilty of an offence punishable, on conviction, by imprisonment for 20 years.

Unless I have got it wrong, industrial manslaughter has a very similar definition. If we are going to play that game here then I am suggesting that we need to amend the legislation and reduce the government's proposal from 25 to 20 years.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (9.34): The government will not be supporting Mr Pratt's amendments No 2 and No 4. The existing penalty for manslaughter is 20 years imprisonment. However, this is inconsistent with the nationally agreed model criminal code which recommends a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment for the offence of manslaughter.

The government is committed to progressively applying the Criminal Code to all ACT legislative offences. All new offences created after 1 January 2003, when the ACT Criminal Code came into effect, must be consistent with the code. Rather than reducing penalties for industrial manslaughter so as to be inconsistent with the Criminal Code, the government will be introducing legislation to increase the penalty for the general offence of manslaughter so that it is consistent with the Criminal Code and the industrial manslaughter offences. It is expected the Department of Justice and Community Safety will review the other fatal offences in 2004.

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