Page 3406 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 25 November 1992
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I am not the first person in this country to raise concern about bail and bail circumstances in recent days. Members will have seen a discussion paper issued by the New South Wales Labor Opposition about a number of sexual offences and matters relating to that. One of the proposals, according to the report I saw, was that "bail will be refused to offenders who threaten their victims after the initial crime".
Mr Connolly: And that is the current law in the ACT.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is not the case. The situation is that courts at the present time have fairly unlimited discretion, taking into account certain matters.
Mr Connolly: Because the new Act does not come into force until Saturday, but under the new Act we have addressed that.
MR HUMPHRIES: Okay. The fact of life is that the Opposition in New South Wales were saying that the community is entitled to impose standards as to when it sees bail being granted. The community as a whole is entitled to formulate and set those standards, and this Bill does that. It sets certain standards and says, "We believe that only in exceptional circumstances should a person who has clearly shown himself or herself on face value to be unworthy of bail receive bail a second time". This is, in a sense, an imposition on the discretion of judges and magistrates; there is no doubt about that. But the community is entitled to set standards that it believes are applicable in the case of certain offences and the granting of bail for those offences.
To give an example, we provide for a minimum penalty in the case of a person who drinks and drives. That person must, mandatorily, lose his access to a driver's licence. That is in a sense a minimum penalty. We also set maximum penalties for almost all offences, and probably all offences under our criminal code. We should be looking at making sure that the community standards on this question are adequately reflected in our position with respect to bail. This Bill will reassure many in the community who have concerns about the state of the bail law. I hope that the Government will allow this matter to be debated on the floor of the Assembly. I believe that it might have the prerogative of doing otherwise. I commend the Bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Connolly) adjourned.
EDUCATION (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
MR MOORE (10.40): Madam Speaker, I present the Education (Amendment) Bill 1992.
Title read by Clerk.
MR MOORE: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill is intended to promote fairness in decisions regarding the suspension, compulsory transfer, expulsion or exclusion of students from any school in the ACT. In presenting this Bill I am intending to give students and their parents access to a basic right enjoyed by all in our society, outside of the defence forces
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