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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (15 June) . . Page.. 1816 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

apprehended because the test there is reasonable suspicion whereas the police here face a much harder test in terms of the current reasonable belief.

I commend the bill and the explanatory memorandum to the Assembly. I think it is a significant step forward in the criminal law. It is fair, but what it does do is ensure that our excellent police force has further legislative tools, and reasonable legislative tools, to do its job.

I flag an amendment the government will be bringing in, and that is simply in relation to a concern the Chief Magistrate had.

I move:

Debate (on motion by Mr Stanhope ) adjourned to the next sitting.

Criminal Code Bill 2001

Mr Stefaniak , pursuant to notice, presented the bill and its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Attorney-General) (11.02): I move:

I seek leave to have my speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows:

Mr Speaker

The Criminal Code 2001 marks the beginning of a new era in ACT criminal law, by setting out clearly the fundamental principles of criminal responsibility. These principles have been distilled from centuries of case law from English courts and, more recently, courts in Australian and other common law jurisdictions.

Some of these principles are well known to all of us from novels, movies and television programs-many of us will recall Rumpole expounding to a goggle-eyed jury the "golden thread" of British justice, that a person is presumed innocent until the prosecution proves his or her guilt, beyond a reasonable doubt. That principle, from the Woolmington case, is incorporated into the Bill in clause 23.

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