Page 2123 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 June 2005
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which is at present only five years, would rise to 15. Culpable driving would increase from seven years to 14 years, again to bring it into line with New South Wales. Abduction of a young person would increase from five to 10 years. False accounting, a corporate crime, would rise from seven to 10 years. There are about 40 instances here in this particular bill where the maximum penalty currently available in the ACT is far lower than in New South Wales. This bill would raise them to the New South Wales level, or approximately to that level.
There is concern about people setting traps. In a previous bill we debated amendments to section 28 of the Crimes Act and people setting traps. On reflection, we left that out of this bill. Section 28 will remains as is, although the penalties for the four offences within section 28 at five years are too low, so we have suggested in this bill that they be raised to 10 years. I note that was a concern the government had last time and we have left that out of this package.
In respect of standard non-parole periods, the bill duplicates the New South Wales legislation to a very large extent. It would see a standard non-parole period, that is, the time the criminal actually spends in jail, introduced for a number of serious offences. If members have a look at New South Wales, they will find a few more serious offences, but the main ones are covered here and are compatible with what New South Wales has done.
What this means is the court must use these standard periods when setting a non-parole period, unless, and this is where the court has a discretion, and a significant one, there are mitigating or aggravating circumstances in the case that justify a court deviating from the standard non-parole period. Standard non-parole periods, as they apply in New South Wales, are as follows, and they are in the amendments: murder, 25 years for a special category where someone deliberately goes out and kills a person because of their occupation, such as a teacher, a police officer, a nurse, a judicial officer, an emergency services worker or a community worker. In any other case the standard non-parole period is 20 years. Remember, there can be mitigating and aggravating circumstances but, as a standard, 20 years.
It is interesting when you look around the country, for example, in New South Wales, that this standard has pretty well been adopted and the High Court of Australia has accepted these particular non-parole periods. In the ACT you are looking at about 12 or 13 years for a non-parole period. That is way out of kilter now with New South Wales and, I would suggest, the rest of the country. I do not think it reflects the gravity of such a crime.
The bill provides for a standard non-parole period for attempted murder of 10 years. For rape in the first degree, which is a gang rape, the standard non-parole period will be 15 years; for intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm, five years; for aggravated armed robbery, that is, where someone actually gets injured, seven years; for aggravated burglary where serious injury is caused to a person, seven years; for carjacking, which is a new offence in the bill, two years, or, if committed in aggravating circumstances, again where someone is injured, five years and for the repeat offence of burglary if an offender has been convicted of burglary offences in the previous five years, one year.
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