Bills

Statutes Amendment (Assaults on Police Officers) Bill

Introduction and First Reading

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (10:32): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Bail Act 1985, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 and the Sentencing Act 2017. Read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (10:32): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I introduce the Statutes Amendment (Assaults on Police Officers) Bill 2025 this morning to do two things: first, to back in our frontline police officers and better protect those who protect us every day and, secondly, to send a very clear message to any coward who is thinking of harming or attacking or assaulting a police officer, and that is if you do so and you are found guilty you will go to jail.

The introduction of this bill is in a very concerning context where we have seen a really big increase in assaults on police over the past couple of years. Indeed, it was recently reported that assaults on police are up nearly 40 per cent over the last couple of years during the term of this Labor government. I am sick of seeing our police treated as some sort of punching bag. We have seen very recent examples of disgusting behaviour towards our brave police officers, everything from our police officers being attacked savagely with swords to our police officers being run over with vehicles.

Then, of course, we had a case last year before the courts that caused not only great concern among police but, I think it is fair to say, outrage amongst the community more generally when we saw a pregnant police officer savagely and viciously attacked on Rundle Street. Severe injuries were inflicted by an offender who I think showed very little remorse and got to walk away from court without serving a single day in jail after sentencing.

That was of course the case of Raina Cruise. The name that we probably do not hear as much when we talk about Raina Cruise in the media is Senior Constable Anthea Beck, who was the police officer on duty that evening, who was trying to do little more than her job of protecting us and was subject to this savage attack. The recent Police Journal describes some of that attack on Senior Constable Anthea Beck. I will quote a small passage:

Beck had responded to a disturbance and encountered drunk, out-of-control street offender Raina Cruise, who took only seconds to get violent.

It came after a polite police request simply to talk to Cruise and her two male companions. But none of the three was up for a polite conversation. Indeed, the trio was instantly hostile.

Cruise raged against Beck, whose hair she grabbed and ultimately ripped out in chunks. She also let fly with her fists and feet as Beck copped multiple punches to her head, face and body and kicks to her legs and torso. And Cruise was the heavier, taller and more powerfully built of the two women.

In danger of copping a punch which might well have knocked her out, Beck managed to grasp and deploy her pepper spray. It had no effect on Cruise. Beck wound up with droplets in her own eyes and then struggled to see.

But she still fought on to do her duty, which was to try to overpower, contain and arrest the rampaging Cruise. She stuck to the task, not only despite the battering but also without the slightest hint that she was carrying her first child.

It is a harrowing account of a disgusting attack on a police officer.

Last year, Raina Cruise was found guilty of the offence of assaulting a police officer and was sentenced to three years and eight months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years, but that sentence was suspended and Raina Cruise walked out of that courtroom without serving a single day in jail after sentencing. When that happened, Senior Constable Anthea Beck posted a statement with her reaction to that sentencing. She said:

The work and emotional labour put in by so many people for the last three years has been reduced to insult. I am disgusted, disappointed. But more I am afraid for my colleagues and friends, expected to uphold and protect, but cannot expect the same for themselves.

What does this outcome say except you can be found guilty of causing harm to an emergency service worker, and at worse expect the inconvenience of a lengthy court proceeding.

That is all that has occurred here: the inconvenience of a lengthy court proceeding in response to a vicious attack on a servicing police officer.

The Police Association president also issued a statement at the same time. I note and thank the Police Association for their advocacy in the legislative reform that we bring before the house today. The Police Association said, and I quote:

Farcical sentences like this one only serve to embolden criminals and demoralise police. It makes a mockery of the system when, after what she did, an offender like Cruise can walk away from the courtroom and simply return to her every-day life. This is not justice.

It is not justice. The introduction of this bill today is designed to bring a bit of justice back for our police officers. These despicable attacks need to have penalties and need to have sentences that are in line with community expectations, and I think in this example we have seen a failure of that, and we have seen that underscoring the need for legislative reform. It is not the only example, it is just the most recent to capture public attention.

It was the former Liberal government that last undertook law reform in this space, amending the Criminal Law Consolidation Act to create an aggravated offence for assaulting a prescribed emergency worker—that is under section 20AA—and that holds a maximum penalty of 15 years. That was an important reform. It provided the means and ability for a court to convict and sentence individuals who conduct these assaults on police. But, unfortunately, we are seeing a continued prevalence of assaults on police, and we are seeing that the courts are just not imposing the sorts of sentences that that legislation might have intended or, indeed, the community might expect. That is why the opposition continues its proud tradition of law reform in law and order today.

The bill before the house does three things broadly. The first is an amendment to section 20AA of the act, the provision I referred to earlier that the former Liberal government introduced in 2019, to impose a mandatory imprisonment of a period no less than six months for a person who causes harm to a police officer acting in the course of their official duties. This is in clause 3 of the bill.

Secondly, the bill removes the ability for a court to suspend the sentence that is imposed when someone is found guilty of such an offence. This is in clause 4. Time and time again we see a heavy sentence imposed and a significant non-parole period imposed, but then an ability to suspend the sentence, which sees very little consequence for the offender and I think sends the wrong message to any other person who might think it is a good idea to go and attack or assault a police officer. Through clause 4 we are amending the Sentencing Act to ensure that in most cases the sentence of imprisonment cannot be suspended.

Thirdly, the bill introduces an amendment to the Bail Act to have a presumption against bail for those who have been taken into custody for this particular offence. This is an amendment to section10A of the Bail Act, which lists a number of offences that we see as appropriate to have a presumption against bail. We think that the gravity of the offending when a police officer is involved, an assault on a police officer causing harm and doing so in a deliberate and intentional way, meets that threshold and is also appropriate to add to that list under section 10A.

If you assault a police officer you will go to jail. If you assault a police officer your sentence will not be suspended, and if you assault a police officer you will have a presumption against bail. None of this is a particularly novel approach. Indeed, we see similar reforms in many jurisdictions across the country. All of Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have some sort of scheme for mandatory custodial sentences for assaulting a police officer.

We know that the Police Association supports legislation in this sort of intent and have recently written to the Attorney, I understand, urging some of the reforms that are contemplated in this bill. It is so important that we send the right message to our police officers and to those cowards who think it is a good idea to attack them. It is particularly important during this police resourcing crisis that we find ourselves in.

We know that we have a shortfall of nearly 200 police officers on the beat. We know that one in three SAPOL employees are considering leaving the force in the next three years. Indeed, Senior Constable Anthea Beck herself described one symptom of the police resourcing crisis during her own ordeal, when she said, and this is a quote from the Police Association Journal:

A compounding issue on that busy Saturday night-Sunday morning was that back-up was minutes away.

Anthea Beck said:

I could hear comms, or whoever was on the radio, calling for help for me. I recall hearing them ask: 'Is there any free patrols to come?' But I knew there wasn't. I knew the rest of my team was on foot in Hindley Street. So it was just like: 'Who's going to come?'

That is starkly illustrating the police resourcing crisis that we face. It is critical that we as a parliament show police that we have got their back and we protect our frontline policer officers.

The SPEAKER: Do you seek leave to continue?

Mr BATTY: I will conclude. We need to show the police that we have their back. Enough is enough. We should pass this law today and protect our police.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.