Hansard - Justice and Road Legislation Amendment (Law Enforcement) Bill

JUSTICE AND ROAD LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (LAW ENFORCEMENT) BILL
Second reading

Mr WAKELING (Ferntree Gully) – It gives me pleasure to rise to join the debate on the Justice and Road Legislation Amendment (Law Enforcement) Bill. As has been put by other members of the Liberal Party – and firstly by the member for Kew – the Liberal Party will certainly be supporting this piece of legislation. This is an omnibus bill which will be amending the Magistrates' Court Act 1989, the Police Regulation Act 1958, the Road Safety Act 1986 and the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004.

As is explained in the explanatory memorandum, in short the bill amends the Magistrates' Court Act 1989 to make provision to allow certain indictable offences to be heard and determined summarily. It amends the Police Regulation Act 1958 to make provision for certain types of photographs to be released to the media and to clarify and strengthen offences relating to the release of information by police personnel. It amends the Road Safety Act 1986 to create a new offence and make provision for certain matters relating to the impoundment, mobilisation and forfeiture of motor vehicles, and it amends the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 to make further provision in relation to registrable offenders, the reporting obligations of registrable offenders, confidentiality of personal information, the change of name applications and other matters.

Looking at the specific provisions of the bill, as the member for Geelong has just explained with respect to police regulation, the bill will, amongst other things, amend the provisions relating to the issuing of agency photographs or mug shots. This has been brought about as a result of the 2005 matter before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in Smith v. Victoria Police. As a consequence of that decision this legislation enables the Chief Commissioner of Police to provide upon application a copy of an agency photograph or a mug shot up to six months after a criminal has been found guilty of a particular crime.

Another aspect of the bill which is certainly of interest increases penalties for the offence of misusing the law enforcement assistance program database. There has been an assorted history associated with access to the database. One only has to look back to events prior to the 2002 state election when the files of a now member for Northern Metropolitan Region in the other place, Mr Guy, were accessed while he was a candidate for the Liberal Party. I believe the file of Ms Kay Nesbit, who was a candidate for the seat of Bass, was accessed as well. The Liberal Party took up the cudgels over that issue and took a strong position on it. This government has been dragged kicking and screaming, but it is pleasing to see that finally it has done something about this important issue. The bill will also create a new indictable offence with increased penalties for the disclosure of unauthorised information where it intentionally or recklessly endangers life, assists in the commissioning of an indictable offence and/or impedes the administration of justice.

In regard to the amendments to the Road Safety Act 1986, the bill will create a new offence relating to the driving of a motor vehicle when directed to stop by the police. I listened with interest to the contribution of the member for Benambra, who is a former member of the traffic management unit with the Victorian police force, and the interest he has in this matter particularly regarding interstate pursuits. Certainly he raises an interesting point which I believe the government will need to consider. The bill creates a new offence, and we will be supporting the government on the creation of that offence. Any death on the roads is one too many, and the examples that were provided by the member for Lara certainly indicate that if there is anything that we as legislators can do on this important issue it is incumbent on us to take that action. We certainly supported the provisions of the anti-hoon legislation because we believed it is responsible legislation which we as a party have supported for a long time. We are keen to support any provisions that improve road safety.

The Sex Offenders Registration Act will also be amended. The bill gives the Chief Commissioner of Police the ability to block a registered sex offender from changing his or her name. All registered sex offenders will have to apply to the chief commissioner in writing to seek approval to change their name.

On the surface one would be supportive of this provision, but we believe more can be done on this piece of legislation. We believe it is incumbent on the Chief Commissioner of Police to have access to various changes to someone's records involving things like births, deaths and marriages, but it important that every available effort is made to restrict the operation of notorious sex offenders.

I believe it is incumbent on us as legislators to ensure we exhaust every possible means that we have at our disposal to ensure that we do what is best in the interests of the Victorian community to try to prevent sex offenders from having an abhorrent nature and continuing their abhorrent behaviour. Whilst we are supportive of the provisions which change the Sex Offenders Registration Act, we certainly believe more could have been done to give the chief commissioner the greatest powers. I would hate to think that something could occur in the future and we were left thinking that if only we had tightened the legislation now we may have potentially prevented an individual, particularly a vulnerable child, from becoming a victim of one of these creatures.

Together with all other members of this house, I am pleased to support the legislation. I believe it is important that we tighten police regulations, the Road Safety Act and the Sex Offenders Registration Act, but some of these provisions could have been introduced earlier.

Unfortunately like a lot of legislation that comes to this house – and we in opposition quite repetitiously highlight the fact that this government has been lax in its legislative regime – –

Ms Marshall – No!

Mr WAKELING – I am pleased that the member for Forest Hill agrees with me regarding that proposition! We will continue to hold this government to account; and we will continue to ensure that this government makes necessary legislative changes to ensure that the Victorian community moves forward. I commend the bill to the house and I wish it a speedy passage.

Source: http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/downloadhansard/assembly.htm