Bills

Criminal Law (High Risk Offenders) Bill

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of the House of Assembly's message.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I move:

That the House of Assembly's consequential amendment be agreed to.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: This bill passed the Legislative Council on 18 June with amendments moved by the government after negotiations with the opposition, and we are happy to support it. It has had its name changed from '(Extended Supervision Orders)' to '(High Risk Offenders)' as a result of the inclusion of a new type of order in the new process for dealing with breaches of an ESO.

The Attorney-General has negotiated with the member for Morialta, working cooperatively, and there are further amendments resulting from drafting errors, I believe. Clause 5(d) includes in the meaning of 'a high risk offender', 'a person in prison for an offence breaching a supervision order.' That offence, which was in clause 17 of the bill before it was deleted by the amendments, does not exist as a result of the amendments, hence clause 5(d) should have been deleted as part of the amendments. I just convey to the chamber that the Liberal Party will be supporting the government in the tidy up of this legislation, on which we have worked quite cooperatively with the government.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I will not repeat what my very good friend, the Hon. Terry Stephens, has already said about why clause 5(d), included in the meaning of 'a high risk offender', has been changed. I would be saying exactly the same thing he has said, so I am glad he has put that on the record.

Motion carried.