STATUTES AMENDMENT (ARREST PROCEDURES AND BAIL) BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 15 October 2013.)

The Hon. S.G. WADE (17:43): I rise to indicate that the opposition will be supporting the Statutes Amendment (Arrest Procedures and Bail) Bill 2013. In fact, I think that it would be fair to say that it is a long-awaited bill. On 9 November 2010, the Attorney-General made a ministerial statement in the House of Assembly to advise that 'the government was taking decisive action to provide South Australia with a new, smarter bail process from next year'. 'Next year' was actually 2011. In 2013, we are hoping that we might have a new, smarter bail process by 2014.

The Attorney-General advised in that ministerial statement that cabinet had approved the preparation of amendments to achieve greater efficiencies in the way in which police and the courts deal with minor offenders and that he intended to consult widely with a view to introducing amendments to the parliament in 2011. The bill was not introduced until this year and, in fact, the second reading explanation for this bill was on 11 September 2013. In his ministerial statement in 2010, the Attorney-General said:

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and this government has taken a further step in a clear direction.

I am sure that was true, but it still took us another 1,037 days for the bill to go from the ministerial statement stage to the tabling.

The bill deals with a range of measures—from procedures on arrests to telephone reviews of bail, extensions of preparation of applications, particularly of relevance to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions—and it deals with matters in terms of persons arrested being delivered to the nearest police station, and a range of other matters.

The bill, as we consulted, clearly had the broad support of both the police and legal stakeholders, and that is a tribute to the officers who were involved in this work, because that is often not the case. It gives me cause to reflect on the many hours of hard work that officers, both in the Public Service and in our police service, undertake in terms of developing legislation policies and procedures. I might be mistaken, but I seem to recall that the police officer who had particular carriage for this bill said that for him work on it had first started seven years ago. That reminds me of another bill, I think the child sex offender reforms, where the Attorney-General's Department officer I think suggested that the police and the A-G's department had been working on the changes for two years.

Whilst this parliament is often forced to consider very complex matters in a very short time, a lot of those statutes have been the subject of a lot of hard work by a range of officers across the government. Of course we are indebted to them in relation to this bill which, as I said, received broad support in what is clearly a complex area. When you are talking about taking away people's liberty when they are yet to be convicted of an offence, it raises significant issues for the justice system and it is a tribute to all those involved that this bill has received the high level of support that it has.

The opposition will be moving one relatively minor amendment. I am not suggesting that it is insignificant, but consistent with our broad support for the legislation we will have one amendment to strengthen the moves this legislation will make in terms of encouraging authorities to use technology to try to reduce the impact on South Australians who live in remote areas. With those few words, I commend the bill to the house and look forward to the committee stage at a later date.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. K.J. Maher.