Page 3324 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017
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punishment will be up to five years imprisonment, with the sentence to be determined by judges depending on the circumstances. The new provisions have been drafted so that there are fewer legal technicalities to be worked through in these cases. These new provisions will allow police, prosecutors and the courts to focus more on the facts of alleged drink spiking cases and less on legal technicalities about which statute should be applied.
This bill has been subjected to rigorous consultation and analysis. My directorate developed a consultation paper and circulated it to legal experts and to organisations that work with victims of crime. The Director of Public Prosecutions, the Victims of Crime Commissioner, the ACT Law Society and the ACT Human Rights Commission each provided submissions to help craft the provisions in this bill.
This government is working hard to ensure that Canberrans are safe. We recognise that our efforts to promote a diverse night-time economy need to be underpinned by effective safety measures. Earlier this year, we worked with businesses to deliver new laws that made our liquor licensing scheme safer and more business-friendly at the same time. We delivered significant resources in the budget to support that change, with six additional police on the beat to patrol our night precincts.
The new legislation in this bill will specifically target a real and serious safety risk to people enjoying a night out in Canberra. Drink spiking is a crime that this community will not tolerate. This bill will give the police and prosecutors who deal with this crime a better way to hold offenders to account. This legislation is part of a comprehensive approach to building a safer Canberra, through more resources for police, better regulation of our night economy and programs to help people stay safe. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Hanson) adjourned to the next sitting.
Statute Law Amendment Bill 2017
Mr Ramsay, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for Regulatory Services, Minister for the Arts and Community Events and Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (11.16): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2017 makes revisions to ACT legislation under guidelines for the technical amendments program approved by the government. The program provides for amendments that are minor or technical and non-controversial. The program is implemented by presenting a statute law amendment bill such as this in each sitting of the Legislative Assembly and including further technical amendments in other amending legislation, where appropriate.
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