Page 297 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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and management of registered child sex offenders in our community and will ensure, as far as possible, the safety and protection of children from sexual assault and violence.
Today I will provide members with an overview of the amendments the government is proposing. I will also provide members with details of the evidence and the human rights issues that the government has considered in reaching the decision to propose greater obligations and potential controls on registered child sex offenders.
The purpose of the child sex offender legislative scheme is to reduce the likelihood that registered offenders will reoffend and to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of any future offences that registered offenders may commit. To achieve these purposes, the act currently requires registered offenders to keep police informed of their whereabouts and other personal details for relevant periods of time set out in the act. This period of time is between four years and life, depending on the type of offence committed and whether the offender was an adult or young person at the time of the offence.
In June 2009 the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management recommended that all Australian jurisdictions implement, as far as possible and in a nationally consistent manner, reforms to their respective child sex offender registers. The ministerial council made 14 recommendations, which were based on amendments that the New South Wales government made to their legislation in 2007. Of the 14 recommendations, this bill is proposing to implement six. The remaining recommendations do not apply to the ACT, as we already have provisions to address these matters.
In addition to the ministerial council amendments, this bill is proposing an amendment to address one issue raised by ACT Policing and one issue identified by the Ombudsman in his 2009-10 report.
The amendments proposed by this bill fall into two broad categories: the prohibition order scheme and the general amendments. I will now discuss each category of amendment in turn.
The first category of amendments is the introduction of chapter 5A. This new chapter will create a prohibition order scheme for the ACT. Chapter 5A will allow the Chief Police Officer to apply to the Magistrates Court for an order to prohibit a registrable offender from engaging in conduct that poses a risk to the lives or sexual safety of a child or children.
The conduct that the Magistrates Court may prohibit includes associating with or having contact with specified people or kinds of people; being in specified locations or types of locations; living at one or more premises, a stated kind of premise, or premises at a stated place; engaging in specific behaviour; and being in specified employment or employment of a specified kind, whether paid or voluntary, that is likely to bring the registered offender into contact with children.
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