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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4342 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Speaker, without breaching the sub judice rule, let me say that there has been a recent case where a person incarcerated in the Belconnen Remand Centre was asked to assist police from New South Wales and from Victoria in a fairly high-profile inquiry that took place. I might say that in that particular matter that prisoner had to be released into the custody of officers from the other jurisdiction in fairly artificial circumstances - in circumstances where, in theory, the operation would not have been able to proceed had not certain circumstances been met. I do not want to go into details of those, because the matter is still before the courts. But it is clearly unsatisfactory to have a situation where that kind of leave cannot be granted because the power is not there to assist other police forces in the investigation of matters. We came across a situation where that arose in the last couple of weeks. That is the reason for new paragraph (f) in my circulated amendments. New paragraph (g) deals with other potential situations that may arise, perhaps at very short notice, where leave might need to be granted.

I would hope that members would see that those circumstances were appropriate and necessary to deal with the circumstances which arise in a criminal justice system where people are held in custody and where, for various reasons, their leave needs to be facilitated. This will generally occur in circumstances where the person concerned wishes to be taken out of the place of incarceration, whether it is to obtain compassionate leave for some purpose or to voluntarily assist officers in an inquiry of some kind. In fact, I imagine that they would always be in circumstances where the person was voluntarily agreeing to the circumstances of the leave. Mr Speaker, I think it is most important that flexibility be in the legislation, and I commend the amendments to the Assembly.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Debate resumed from 13 November 1997, on motion by Mr Humphries:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.

Bill agreed to.

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