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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1155 ..

MR STANHOPE: Are you feeling a bit uncomfortable, Kerrie?

Ms Tucker: No.

Title agreed to.

Question put:

That this bill, as amended, be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Criminal Code (Theft, Fraud, Bribery and Related Offences) Amendment Bill 2003

Debate resumed from 11 December 2003, on motion by Mr Stanhope:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MR STEFANIAK (9.41): The opposition will be supporting the Criminal Code (Theft, Fraud, Bribery and Related Offences) Amendment Bill 2003 which implements phase 3 of the criminal code. It inserts a new chapter 3 that codifies our law on theft, fraud, blackmail, forgery, bribery and a number of other offences, rationalises our statute book adds a couple of new offences and continues the work in corporate criminal responsibility, which I will speak about later. As I indicated, this bill codifies and, to an extent, simplifies a very difficult area of the law—an area that causes a lot of practitioners and the courts themselves some concerns, an area that has become more and more difficult as society has become more and more sophisticated and we have had more and more sophisticated dishonesty crimes, especially crimes of fraud. They are difficult matters to prove, especially in complex areas for juries to get their heads around, difficult matters to prosecute and relatively difficult matters to defend. Having done quite a few of them myself, I can certainly attest to that.

I have talked to a number of people about this particular bill. The DPP is very keen to see it in as it simplifies matters considerably. Several of his officers, who I spoke to, are also very keen to see it in and see it in quickly. Interestingly, the head of Legal Aid is quite comfortable with this particular bill as well, which is good to see.

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