Page 1590 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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ACTS REVISION (ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT) BILL 1989
MS FOLLETT (Attorney-General) (10.45): I present the Acts Revision (Arrest without Warrant) Bill 1989. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Bill is intended to clarify the power to arrest without warrant in the Territory by repealing inoperative and redundant provisions from the statute books. It reflects this Government's commitment to simplifying the law and making it more easily understood. The amendments are technical only and do not change the substance of the law on a private individual's or a police officer's power to arrest without warrant.
Section 352 of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900, as it applies in the Territory, provides a general power to arrest without warrant and is intended to be the provision applicable to most situations in this Territory. The present form of section 352 results from amendments made in 1983 and in 1986. Those amendments had the effect of impliedly repealing similar powers of arrest in 12 other Acts - powers which were specific to the Acts they were found in. The continued presence of inoperative arrest provisions in individual Acts could cause confusion about the source of the power of arrest in particular circumstances. To avoid that possibility, this Bill will expressly repeal those provisions from the 12 Acts. In every case then section 352 of the Crimes Act will clearly be the applicable provision. I present the explanatory memorandum to the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Stefaniak) adjourned.
MOTOR TRAFFIC (ALCOHOL AND DRUGS) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1989
MS FOLLETT (Attorney-General) (10.48): I present the Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) (Amendment) Bill 1989. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Bill amends the Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977 to correct an anomaly which has arisen in the operation of the Act. The Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977 establishes procedures for detecting people who drive motor vehicles while under the influence of alcohol or certain specified drugs and creates punishable offences aimed at deterring this socially unacceptable behaviour. The Act authorises blood samples to be taken from an unconscious person who is suspected of having driven while under the influence of alcohol. Several prosecutions have failed where blood was taken from an unconscious driver, even though analysis showed that the person's blood alcohol concentration exceeded the prescribed limit. This is because the relevant offence in
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