SPENT CONVICTIONS BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:32): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to limit the effect of a person's conviction for certain offences if the person completes a period of crime-free behaviour; and for other purposes. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:33): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I clarify for members that a bill currently on the Notice Paper (Notice of Motion No. 21) is on the same subject matter and that, at the appropriate time, I will withdraw that bill because it has been superseded by the one I now introduce.

The matter of spent convictions has been a passion of mine for some time. In fact, on Wednesday 5 May 2004, I introduced a spent convictions bill, and I have been trying ever since to get a spent convictions bill into this house, and through the council and passed into law. I must say that I am absolutely delighted that, following the meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General of Australia, the Attorney-General here has cooperated and worked to provide a bill, which I now introduce, which is very similar to what I have been advocating and have introduced before. I trust that this time we can get the bill through and allow people who have done silly minor things in their past to get on with their life and have a fresh start.

As I have said before in relation to spent convictions bills, we are talking about only very minor offences. We are not talking about murder, rape, bank robbery or things like that. I will go into some detail about the criteria spelt out for people to qualify under this spent convictions bill. In effect, it will be a template for the rest of Australia because the purpose of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General was to try to get some consistency across all jurisdictions, and that is why this legislation is particularly significant.

I point out from the start that I do not condone breaking the law, whether it be minor or major, but, as I continue to emphasise, we are dealing here with offences at the lower end of the scale and not at the more serious end. This bill applies in relation to convictions for eligible adult and juvenile offences. An eligible adult offence means an offence committed by an adult for which a sentence of imprisonment is not imposed or a sentence of imprisonment is imposed but the sentence is 12 months or less.

An eligible juvenile offence means an offence committed while the defendant was a child, where on conviction of the defendant a sentence of imprisonment is not imposed or a sentence of imprisonment is imposed but the sentence is 24 months or less.

The qualification period for a conviction for an offence to be spent is, in the case of an eligible juvenile offence, other than where the person was dealt with as an adult, five consecutive years or, in any other case, 10 consecutive years. Spent conviction orders will not apply for convictions of a body corporate, for sex offences or convictions prescribed by regulation. So, the bill will allow some flexibility for the Attorney, via executive council, to deal with particular offences or convictions which would not entitled to be spent.

There is provision in the bill for how to deal with subsequent convictions and, if a person commits a second or subsequent offence, it will be disregarded if the offence is against the law of another country, the offence was minor, the offence was quashed or the convicted person was granted a pardon. Those are the provisions regarding subsequent convictions.

Under the bill a person cannot be asked or required to provide information regarding a spent conviction so, once a conviction is spent, a person cannot be asked to provide information relating to what has been spent. It is also an offence to carry on a business which involves the provision of information about convictions for offences or which discloses information about spent convictions.

However, under the bill there are a number of agencies to whom exclusions apply. These include justice agencies, including SA Police, Customs, the Attorney-General and the Australian Taxation Office; specific commonwealth agencies, such as immigration; intelligence agencies; AUSTRAC; the Parole Board; and care agencies involved in the care of children, the elderly or the disabled.

What we have here is a historic piece of legislation and, as I said at the start, I am delighted that the Attorney has helped facilitate this in a very fundamental way through the agreement of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General. I believe we can play our part in bringing about what will hopefully become a standardised approach throughout the whole of Australia and allow people who, as I said at the start, have done something minor and committed a silly, relatively insignificant offence to have it struck off, start their life again, get on with their life, get a job in some cases or travel to America and places like that where currently they are not allowed to travel.

A lot of people out in the community (I know, because many of them have contacted me) are looking forward to this legislation. The day that it goes through parliament—which I hope will be soon—they will be rejoicing, because they will be able to remove that stain which is currently against them and which impedes them enjoying life. Some of them have endured beyond the actual punishment they received at the time: for 40 or 50 years they have endured a blemish on their record out of proportion to the sort of offence they committed in the first place.

I trust the bill will have a speedy passage and that we can give many South Australians the opportunity for a fresh start, given that they did something silly, often many, many years ago. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.