Bill to upgrade criminal justice system

November 2, 1995

Attorney General Cheryl Edwardes today introduced into Parliament a Bill to make the criminal justice system more responsive to community needs.

The Criminal Law Amendment Bill 1995 has been designed to address several issues of access to justice, including:

* the backlog of cases in the Supreme and District Courts;

* the process of serving and issuing summonses;

* greater clarity regarding people's right to protect themselves and their property; and -

* the limitations imposed by the Young Offenders Act on the power of the Children's Court to sentence juveniles to the pilot work camp.

Mrs Edwardes said the Bill was part of the Coalition Government's ongoing program of reform of criminal justice legislation, reflecting its 'tough but fair' approach to law and order.

"The Criminal Law Amendment Bill complements a broad range of innovative legislative and administrative reforms which have been introduced by the Coalition over the past two-and-a-half years," she said.

"These include the appointment of extra judges and support staff, the 'fast-tracking' system to speed up trials in the District Court, more courtrooms and improvement to civil case flow.

"This new Bill is an important contribution to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system, which is exactly what the community demands," Mrs Edwardes said.

The proposed amendments addressed in the Bill include:

Western Australia's territorial jurisdiction:

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Under current legislation, WA courts have no jurisdiction to try offences which were orchestrated by persons outside the State. This has obvious ramifications for drug traffickers, who could take advantage of this loophole by establishing headquarters outside the State to service a network of dealers in WA.

Mrs Edwardes said the relevant sections of the Criminal Code had been re-drafted in the Bill to expand WA's territorial jurisdiction in relation to criminal offences, thus sealing the loophole.

Summary conviction penalties:

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Another problem addressed by the Bill relates to a number of indictable offences which, by their nature, should be capable of being dealt with in the Court of Petty Sessions.

However, as the Criminal Code does not provide summary conviction penalties for these offences, the District Court has had to deal with a large number of relatively minor offences with consequent demands on court time.

"The Chief Justice, Chief Judge and the Chief Stipendiary Magistrate have identified a group of offences in the Criminal Code for which summary conviction penalties are considered to be appropriate," Mrs Edwardes said.

"In addition to this, the Bill also seeks to amend the limits on District Court jurisdiction in relation to sexual offences, to address the problem of delays in the Supreme Court.

"This would provide the Supreme Court and the District Court with concurrent jurisdiction over the full range of sexual offences, which would assist in reducing the backlog of other cases in the Supreme Court."

The Young Offenders Act:

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Amendments to the Young Offenders Act would allow the President of the Children's Court or any superior court judge greater discretion in determining which juvenile offender should be placed at Camp Kurli Murri work camp.

This follows comments by the President of the Children's Court that there have been occasions where she has dealt with offenders who could benefit from the camp, but who are excluded by the stringent criteria under the Act.

"However, criteria relating to age and consent are not affected by the proposed amendments," Mrs Edwardes said.

Protection of person and property:

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The matter of people's rights under law to protect themselves and their property is also clarified in the Bill by amending the wording of the Criminal Code to refer to all offences, rather than only 'arrestable offences'.

"Other amendments proposed include a person being able to defend his or her house against entry by a person thought to be going to commit any offence, not just an indictable one, and replacing the definition of dwelling house with a place used for human habitation," Mrs Edwardes said.

"These may well seem like minor changes, but they are very important changes in the eyes of the law," she said.

Serving summonses by post:

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The Criminal Law Amendment Bill also proposes changes to allow certain summonses for simple offences to be issued by post, rather than personally.

Other proposed changes relate to the wording of certain sections of the Code for re-issuing of summons and issuing of further summons.

"The Criminal Law Amendment Bill is designed to provide commonsense changes to certain areas of existing legislation, to enable a speedier, more efficient criminal justice system," Mrs Edwardes said.

Media Contact: Diana Russell Coote 421 7777 or 018 906 948