Page 2040 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 June 1993
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CORONERS LEGISLATION
Draft for Discussion
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (3.41): Madam Speaker, for the information of members, I present a draft for discussion of the Coroners (Amendment) Bill 1993, together with the explanatory statement, and I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
Madam Speaker, members of the Assembly will recall that on 8 April 1992 the Chief Minister tabled the Government's response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The Chief Minister, in her tabling speech, noted the need for reform in the area of coronial responsibilities and the law governing coronial inquests which the royal commission's recommendations had identified, and foreshadowed amendments to the Coroners Act 1956 to implement those recommendations.
I have had a draft Coroners (Amendment) Bill prepared which contains proposals for the amendment of the Coroners Act to provide for coronial procedures in respect of deaths in custody. Subject to some minor technical changes identified in the explanatory material, these proposals implement the recommendations of the royal commission relating to coronial procedures in so far as they are capable of being implemented by the amendment of that Act. The draft Bill proposes that the office of Chief Coroner of the Territory be established and that the Chief Coroner be responsible for the orderly and expeditious discharge of the business of the court, in particular the holding of inquests into deaths in custody.
The Bill proposes a wide definition of a death in custody which will include the death of a person who dies in a remand centre, while carrying out a community service order, while detained or in care under the Mental Health Act or the Children's Services Act, or while in the custody of a sheriff or a member of the police force. Under the proposed legislation the Chief Coroner will be required to notify the immediate family of the holding of an inquest into the death of a person who died in custody and the immediate family of such a person will be given rights under the Act, subject to the interests of justice, such as the right to view the body of the deceased and to inspect the scene of the death.
Community involvement is desired as to the manner in which the recommendations of the royal commission relating to coronial inquests are addressed. Accordingly, the draft Bill has been prepared as an exposure draft to allow interested community groups and agencies to comment on the proposed provisions over the next few months. The Chief Minister made an undertaking that initiatives proposed in response to the royal commission's recommendations would involve Aboriginal people from the planning stage to final implementation. The Aboriginal Advisory Council is now established and I welcome the response of the council to the Bill.
In addition to implementing the Government's response to the royal commission, the Bill incorporates a range of amendments arising out of a general review of the Coroners Act. Among these amendments are stronger powers of search and entry given to a coroner, and stronger offence provisions and a revised contempt
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