Page 1119 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 28 March 2017
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Today I want to delve further into the amendments that this bill will make to the Crimes (Child Sex Offenders) Act. Specifically, the bill expands the circumstances in which a law enforcement officer can get an urgent entry and search warrant to investigate and prevent child sex offences.
Our warrant system ensures that intrusive law enforcement action is necessary and proportionate and is characterised by accountability and transparency. To ensure law enforcement and privacy interests are properly balanced in deciding whether to issue a warrant, a warrant must be authorised by a magistrate. An application for a warrant needs to be supported by a sworn affidavit which sets out all of the relevant information.
However, it is sometimes the case that it is impracticable for an affidavit to be prepared and sworn before a warrant application is made. For example, the risk of an offence may be so immediate that there is no time to prepare and swear an affidavit, as doing so would mean that law enforcement officers miss the opportunity to properly investigate or prevent a serious criminal act.
To counter this risk, our criminal legislation permits the issuing of urgent warrants in some cases. In an urgent warrant application, law enforcement officers still need to provide a magistrate with all relevant information but can do so verbally. This means that appropriate safeguards are still in place, since the warrant can only be issued after the independent analysis of all the relevant circumstances by a magistrate. The application must be followed up with a sworn affidavit as soon as practicable.
Under the child sex offenders act, an officer may apply for a search and entry warrant in two circumstances. The first of these is if a registrable offender has incorrectly reported, or is likely to incorrectly report, personal details. The second of these is if a registrable offender has breached, or is likely to breach, a prohibition order that has been issued under the act.
This bill will ensure that urgent warrants will also be available in instances where a registrable offender has breached, or is likely to breach, a prohibition order. An example of a prohibition order is an order that prohibits a registrable offender from loitering at a park fitted with playground equipment regularly used by children, or seeking employment that will involve the offender coming into contact with children. With these amendments, law enforcement officers will be better equipped to respond to an actual or likely breach of such a prohibition order.
When it comes to child sex offences, it is crucial that we provide our law enforcement officers with the necessary investigative tools, while ensuring that the elements of proportionality and accountability that characterise the warrant system are maintained.
I note that the bill also makes technical and common-sense amendments to a range of other criminal law legislation to ensure that it operates as intended. The amendments will support our law enforcement and court systems in their investigative and sentencing roles, and will clarify the bounds of criminal liability in some cases. I commend this bill to the Assembly.
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