Page 2542 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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The act created by this bill will apply in one of two ways to support the hosting of safe and enjoyable events in the ACT. The measures in the bill can be applied selectively to particular events when it is necessary to provide additional crowd management, ticketing or commercial and intellectual property protections.
First, the executive may declare a major event, by disallowable instrument, at least 28 days before the event. There are a number of considerations the executive must consider before deciding to declare an event. The declaration must be published in a daily newspaper. A major event declaration can trigger crowd management provisions, protection of commercial arrangements and protection of ticketing arrangements.
Secondly, a minister may give notice that an event is an “important sporting event”. The minister may only make an important sporting event notice if satisfied that making one is necessary for the safety of people attending the event, and the avoidance of disruptions to the event. Again, there are a number of factors that must be considered before notifying an important sporting event. Like a major event declaration, an important sporting event notice must be published in a daily newspaper.
Only crowd management provisions are triggered to apply to an important sporting event. Crowd management provisions, when triggered by an event declaration, will give authorised people, including police officers, a suite of powers including the power to search attendees and, in some cases, seize prohibited items.
Authorised people will be able, for example, to do basic non-invasive, non-contact searches or give a direction reasonably necessary for the good management of an event. Authorised people can also scan for prohibited items and request that a person surrender those items. Police will be able to conduct ordinary and frisk searches, ask for names or addresses, confiscate items without consent, or arrest, detain or apprehend a person who refuses to heed directions.
Authorised people are appointed by the Director-General and they must be employed or licensed under the Security Industry Act 2003. A number of crowd management offences from the Major Events Security Act are included in the new bill, as well as new offences to be able to enforce the provisions.
Another important aspect of the crowd management provisions is the ability for an interested party to apply to the Magistrates Court for an order banning a person from entering an event, or part of an event, for a stated period. A ban order can only be applied for if a person has been convicted or found guilty of a ban order offence. The ban will only operate for the duration of the events listed in the ban order and is limited to a 12-month period. A person subject to a ban order will have all the same appeal rights that apply to any decision of the Magistrates Court.
The crowd management provisions will apply to both major events and important sporting events. For the commercial arrangement provisions or ticketing provisions to apply, a notice must be published in a daily newspaper. The minister cannot make a
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