Page 24 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.07), in reply: I thank members for their support of this bill.
The bill focuses on reforming two specific areas of the Bail Act 1992. The first area of reform is the provisions relating to procedures for the grant of bail and review of bail decisions. The second area is the limitations on the power of the Magistrates Court to grant bail.
The first and main area of reform relates to procedural matters concerning the grant of bail and review of bail decisions. These matters can be quite technical. I intend to provide members with a more detailed picture of this aspect of the reforms first.
Since its inception in 1992, the Bail Act has provided for two separate processes or routes for the court to consider the question of bail.
The first route involves what are known as the “grant of bail” provisions in part 4 of the act. The second involves what are known as the “review of bail provisions” in part 6. Insofar as they apply to court decisions in relation to accused people, the two procedures are interchangeable. The requirement for two procedures flows from the need for the review scheme to relate to all levels of bail decision, from police officers through to the Supreme Court. Both sets of provisions are reformed by the Bail Amendment Bill to ensure that that consistency is achieved.
The crucial concept of jurisdiction of the courts with respect to bail is one which it is important to address.
The term “before the court” is one that indicates when a court has the statutory authority to deal with a particular case. It is a term that is used throughout the bill to specify when either the Magistrates Court or the Supreme Court has the power to make a decision about bail in a criminal case. The bill makes specific provision as to when a case can be said to be “before the Supreme Court”, to make it clear when the Supreme Court is empowered to make a bail decision. New section 12B of the Bail Act provides that an offence is before the Supreme Court in three circumstances:
firstly, when an accused person has been committed to the Supreme Court for either trial or sentence;
secondly, when the accused person is appearing in the Supreme Court because the Director of Public Prosecutions has exercised his statutory power to start proceedings on indictment; and
thirdly, when an accused person is appealing to the Supreme Court against a conviction, order or sentence imposed in the Magistrates Court.
Now to the first example to demonstrate how the new procedures will work, and this example involves an accused person whose case is before the Magistrates Court. In this scenario the accused person makes their first application for bail in the Magistrates Court and the Magistrates Court makes a bail decision. If the decision is
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