Page 430 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 13 March 2007
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This bill increases the maximum penalty for the ACT offence from 50 penalty units and/or six months imprisonment to 200 penalty units and/or two years imprisonment. This will give the courts a more appropriate sentencing range so that they can deal with offenders who may have been responsible for an accident causing the death or serious injury of another person but who failed to stop at the scene of the accident. Members would be aware that even higher penalties are also available in relation to the causing of death or injury should offenders be charged with other offences such as culpable driving.
The bill will address an anomaly in the sentencing range available in relation to very serious offences and will, by increasing the penalty, hopefully reinforce to those unfortunate enough to be involved in a serious accident that there is a legal obligation on them to stop and, if they can, assist anyone who may have been injured. I urge members to support the bill.
MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra—Leader of the Opposition) (11.17): I join my colleague Mr Pratt in indicating support for this bill. Mr Pratt said earlier that the penalties in the ACT are still somewhat low compared with the penalties in other states but at least a penalty of two years imprisonment and/or 200 penalty units is a significant improvement on six months imprisonment and/or 50 penalty units. This is a very serious offence and people have a moral responsibility to stop and render assistance if they have caused an accident. I think most people do stop. However, during my time in the courts it was a reasonably common occurrence to see people charged with the offence of leaving the scene of an accident.
Often those accidents did not cause serious injury but sometimes they did. When someone is seriously injured I think it is pretty reprehensible for the other person involved not to stop and to render assistance. As has been said, it might be something as simple as ringing 000, but it is important for the law to reflect the gravity of this offence. This is not just a normal, run-of-the-mill traffic offence where someone is driving 15 to 30 kilometres over the speed limit. It is not just a negligent driving offence, or even an offence involving a person driving in a dangerous manner; it is a serious offence because people’s lives are at risk.
People should have both a moral and a legal responsibility to assist in those instances, and the law should reflect that. This legislation is a step in the right direction. Mr Hargreaves referred in his speech to a number of points. I ask the government in this instance to practise what it preaches in relation to other laws. Mr Hargreaves rightly said on the second page of his introductory speech:
A review of penalties for similar offences in other jurisdictions has disclosed that the ACT penalty for this offence is significantly out of step with penalties throughout the rest of Australia.
He then went on to state:
It appears that all other jurisdictions have a maximum penalty of at least one year’s imprisonment for the equivalent offence. The penalties range up to 10 years imprisonment in New South Wales and Victoria.
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