Page 2018 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020
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Changes to the ACAT Act mean that the commissioner may apply to the ACAT for enforcement orders if a party fails to comply with an agreed outcome. This is stated as being a better way for consumer complaints to be dealt with and to be enforced, and we support those changes.
Other areas of substantive policy changes are those made to the Spent Convictions Act 2000 and the Court Procedures Act 2004. The changes will allow a person to apply for a youth sexual offence conviction to be spent in limited circumstances. Historically, sex offences cannot be spent, and in most cases that is for very good reasons. There are, however, some very limited circumstances where justice may be better served with more flexibility.
Under the proposed changes, this new option will only apply if the offence occurred when the offender themselves was a minor, and there must have been either no sentence of imprisonment or one for less than six months. Upon application, the court must notify the victim, other affected parties, the Chief Police Officer and the DPP, who are all entitled to make submissions. The court must also take into consideration the nature and circumstances of the offence, the original sentence, the views of the victim and affected parties, any risks involved and the interests of justice.
In short, this change is to deal with what is sometimes described as “Romeo and Juliet” circumstances, where two young people have had a sexual relationship and the offence is essentially made out because of age alone. In those circumstances there may be cases where justice does not mean a life sentence. With the conditions and safeguards contained in this proposal, we support this change.
As I mentioned earlier, I have received comments from my colleague Ms Lawder about the amendments to the Domestic Animals Act 2000. The Canberra Liberals, for many years now, have called for stronger domestic animal legislation. We firmly believe that this act needs to be further strengthened to better protect individuals and animals from dog attacks.
Updating the definition of “serious injury” in relation to dog bites to align with Dr Ian Dunbar’s dog bite scale is a step in the right direction. However, it does not go far enough. Canberrans and their pets deserve to be better protected than they currently are if they are attacked by a dangerous dog. The Canberra Liberals are committed to delivering stronger dangerous dog legislation in the future.
The Canberra Liberals are supportive of the introduction of the requirement for those selling or giving away a cat or dog to include an ACT breeding licence number or the person’s rehoming identifier and the unique microchip of the animal in question. We believe that these amendments better align the legislation with the New South Wales domestic animal legislation and create more cohesion between the two jurisdictions. However, we do have concerns about how these new requirements will be enforced if they are passed, as they will be today.
The process of conducting random ID checks on puppies for sale on Gumtree in Canberra seems arbitrary and irregular. It would seem that this government has
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