Page 2013 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016

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The acquitted person is also entitled to appear at the hearing of an application for a trial made pursuant to section 68O. The new provisions also provide that the acquitted person may be represented by a legal practitioner at the hearing.

Amendments 1 to 3 agreed to.

Clause 5, as amended, agreed to.

Remainder of the bill, by leave, taken as a whole and agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2016

Debate resumed from 5 May 2016, on motion by Mr Corbell:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (8.52): Madam Assistant Speaker, this bill amends 17 acts and three regulations. The amendments change a range of regulatory reforms to streamline the administrative processes and make compliance easier for the community, business and government. We will be supporting this legislation today.

I will not go through each of the items because that has been done already in the tabling speech—and in the interest of time—other than to say that we have sought comment from stakeholders, including the Law Society and the Bar Association who have made no comments on these. We have been through these matters individually and they appear reasonable. Certainly we do support attempts by the government and JACS staff to make legislation of this sort better. So we will be supporting this legislation.

MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Corrections, Minister for Education, Minister for Justice and Consumer Affairs and Minister for Road Safety) (8.53): Like other regular justice and community safety bills, this bill makes minor amendments to a range of legislation relating to justice and community safety. I will not discuss all of these changes as the bill amends 20 acts and regulations. They are positive and relatively procedural but I will make some brief comments on a few in particular.

One of the amendments introduced by this bill will introduce a specific offence in the Crimes Act of throwing or directing objects at vehicles. This is a good change and one which I have advocated over several years, particularly as it relates to vulnerable road users such as bicycle riders. Throwing objects at riders is unfortunately a relatively common practice, and many regular cyclists will have a story of being hit or nearly hit by an object thrown from a car. Some of them will have stories of how it caused an incident or a near miss. If you do not know any cyclists, these days with the popularity of helmet cams, a quick internet search will bring up videos of cyclists being subjected to dangerous behaviour.


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