Page 1391 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 April 2005
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a matter that has not been tested. That is absolutely outrageous behaviour, and the member should withdraw it.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, absolutely.
MR PRATT: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I withdraw those earlier comments. The death of a woman who was three months pregnant, if that particular case is found to have been the result of other circumstances, then our laws do not cover right now what might have been an otherwise lawful outcome.
This bill is not just about recklessness in terms of road incidents and other actions; it is also about protecting women in cases of domestic violence. It is important that we, as members of this Assembly, send a clear message to the community that violence against women is not acceptable and holds penalties and that violence against pregnant women is an abomination that holds more serious penalties than just a charge of assault.
The role of the judiciary is an important component of this bill. They are the ones who will ultimately administer the laws that are passed in the Assembly and they are the ones who make certain determinations based on the guidelines that the Assembly provides. Presently, in cases of violence or recklessness that involve pregnant women, the judiciary takes into account any injuries sustained to an unborn child. However, the ability to do this is limited to sentencing and is limited by the maximum sentence accorded to the charge associated with the act against the mother.
This means that currently, if a man beats his pregnant partner and kills the unborn child, he can be sentenced only to the maximum term appropriate for the assault on his wife. While that term may be sufficient in some cases, if the assault is so severe as to attract the maximum penalty, the discretion to appropriate a more severe sentence for the death of the unborn child is removed. It is important that we look beyond the first breath of a child when deciding at what point we should be providing legal protection.
Mr Speaker, the Queensland Criminal Code, section 313, provides:
Any person who, when a female is about to be delivered of a child, prevents the child from being born alive by any act or omission of such a nature that, if the child had been born and had then died, the person would be deemed to have unlawfully killed the child, is guilty of a crime and is liable to imprisonment for life.
The code also provides:
Any person who unlawfully assaults a female pregnant with a child and destroys the life of, or does grievous bodily harm to, or transmits a serious disease to, the child before its birth, commits a crime—maximum penalty, imprisonment for life.
The legislation we are presenting here today provides different degrees of assault and separates the offences based on whether the perpetrator had prior knowledge or reasonably ought to have had that knowledge; so it is much more flexible than the Queensland model. In that sense, this legislation is more comprehensive and flexible, as I was just saying, than the Queensland example.
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