Page 3899 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 September 2018
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apply for warrants in time-critical circumstances, with the overriding objective of protecting the community and the safety of children. It has the potential to cause delays in the issuing of a warrant and may lead to the destruction of the inherent secrecy of the information relied on in seeking the warrant.
For these reasons the bill amends the Crimes (Child Sex Offenders) Act 2005 to clarify that a magistrate has the power to issue a warrant. This will ensure consistency with other warrant provisions in the territory and avoids unintended consequences of inappropriately vesting the power in the court. Consequential amendments are also made to a number of other provisions reflecting this change.
Secondly, the bill amends a number of acts to extend the powers of an associate judge of the Supreme Court to issue warrants equivalent to those granted to judges. A number of warrant schemes created under territory legislation empower issuing officers, judges, magistrates and registrars to issue warrants, which authorise a variety of acts, including entry to premises and the search of persons.
The bill makes amendments to the Crimes (Surveillance Devices) Act 2010, the Drugs of Dependence Act 1989, the Crimes Act 1900 and the Confiscation of Criminal Assets Act 2003, enabling an associate judge to issue a range of warrants under those acts. In addition, the amendments will also extend an associate judge’s powers to approve emergency authorisations under the Crimes (Surveillance Devices) Act 2010 and to other consequential acts related to the issuing of warrants under the Confiscation of Criminal Assets Act 2003.
This approach is consistent with recent amendments made to the Supreme Court Act which expanded the jurisdiction of the associate judge. Increasing the pool of judicial officers authorised to perform persona designata functions will improve the efficiency of the Supreme Court and timeliness for law enforcement agencies.
Thirdly, the bill amends the Magistrates Court Act 1930 and the Supreme Court Act 1933 to extend existing mechanisms for transferring backup and related charges with an indictable matter committed to the Supreme Court. Section 88B of the Magistrates Court Act 1930 provides the court with a power to commit an accused person for trial on application by the person and with the prosecution’s consent. It is, in effect, a waiver of the full committal proceeding.
It has been identified that there is no mechanism to also transfer backup and related charges in committals under this provision. This appears to be an anomaly in the drafting of section 88B. The inability to transfer backup and related charges creates an unnecessary consequence of requiring the Magistrates Court to retain backup and related charges in that court until the committed matter is finalised. This reduces efficiencies and increases costs for a defendant.
The bill amends the Magistrates Court Act 1930 and the Supreme Court Act 1933 to align the process of committal in section 88B with the process of other committals. It addresses the issue of transferred charges at first instance and also the situation where further related or backup charges may be instituted after a waiver of committal proceedings.
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