Page 3595 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 2005
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MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Arts, Heritage and Indigenous Affairs, and Acting Minister for Education and Training) (5.05): The government gave its position in relation to the use of strict liability amendments in the debate on Tuesday. Consistent with that, the government will not support this particular amendment.
The government has already addressed all of the strict liability offences, with the exception of clause 90 (6), the power the seize things. This is a standard clause that complies with the requirements of the Criminal Code 2002 and is consistent with many pieces of legislation that have been passed in the Assembly. The Criminal Code provides for the use of strict liability as a mechanism to discourage reckless behaviour by forcing potential defendants to take every possible precaution. The use of strict liability for this offence is warranted as it is important that, if an officer suspects a crime has been committed, he or she needs to be confident that evidence relating to that crime is not going to be tampered with or removed. The government is satisfied that the concerns raised regarding the use of strict liability have been adequately addressed in the government’s amendments. The government does not support this particular amendment.
Amendment negatived.
Clause 90 agreed to.
Clauses 91 to 105, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 106.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Arts, Heritage and Indigenous Affairs, and Acting Minister for Education and Training) (5.07): I move amendment No 31 circulated in my name [see schedule 3 at page 3619].
This is a technical amendment that is necessary due to the changes to the offence provisions in the government’s earlier amendments, which we debated on Tuesday.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 106, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 107 to 112, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 113.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.08): I move amendment No 10 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 3618].
This is something that I alluded to in the in-principle stage. Clause 113 (2) states:
A regulation may create offences and fix maximum penalties of not more than 10 penalty units for offences.
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