Bills

Criminal Law Consolidation (Assaults Causing Death) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:52): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 and to make related amendments to the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:53): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I have some general comments to make on the coward punch and the reasons behind the introduction of this bill. This bill is to a large extent a copy of what the New South Wales government did a few years ago to try to address what is sadly a growing problem in Australia and internationally, but also unfortunately in South Australia, and that is the issue of assault generally, but particularly now as we are seeing situations where innocent people are becoming victims of serious injury or tragically fatalities. I believe that, through the community, there is a push to send a strong message that anyone who commits cowardly acts that cause death will be dealt with harshly.

Some people would say that you cannot have minimum mandatory sentencing. We do have minimum mandatory sentencing already, although, unfortunately, I see that our Attorney-General is moving to change minimum mandatory sentencing on murder. Once that goes down the path to legislative change, I think there will be a huge outcry from the community. Again, I think he is either being influenced by the legal fraternity or he is under instructions to try to reduce sentences because of an overcrowded prison system. I will deal with that more when I come to ask the correctional services minister some questions in due course about the numbers in the prison system.

Essentially, two problems are causing these coward punches: one is binge drinking and intoxication by drugs, which appears to be a cultural phenomenon in our society; and the second is the general increase in violence on the streets and in venues. We need laws that will send a strong message to the community and to young people in particular—not just young people but all age groups—that alcohol and substance abuse are no excuse for violence. We must put an end to violence on our streets, particularly that which is fuelled by rampant alcohol abuse.

I will refer to these tragic incidents and examples without naming the people. I have dealt with one family in South Australia who I know will never be the same again as a result of the loss of a lovely young son and brother. In 2016, in Fortitude Valley in Queensland, we saw an 18 year old die from a single blow to the head which caused severe injuries and lack of consciousness. We saw a victim assaulted who was just on a good night out at Glenelg, hitting his head on the ground and, tragically, dying in hospital. However, the accused was acquitted as it was found that he acted, according to his defence lawyers, in self-defence—something the family have spoken to me about and, from what I understand, he was not acting in self-defence at all but got off on a technicality.

We saw another young person, 18 years old, on his first night out in Kings Cross die from a coward punch. Kieran Loveridge, the offender, received just a four-year sentence for manslaughter. Again in Kings Cross, we saw another young man die. The attacker has been charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. This person faced charges over attacks on four other people on the same night, so he actually attacked five people.

He pleaded guilty to two of the offences. In 2015, he was unanimously found guilty of manslaughter but not of murder and sentenced to 10 years, with a nonparole period of 7½ years—and yet someone tragically lost their life just going out to have fun with friends, and a whole family has lost a loved one. Their sentence is for the rest of their life. This person received a nonparole period of 7.5 years.

The Sydney Morning Herald in December 2013 stated that one academic study found that there were 90 lives lost between 2000 and 2013 due to coward punch assaults and that in more than three-quarters of the assaults alcohol was involved. They happened in licensed venues, outside licensed venues or on the way home. In more than one-third of the deaths, the victim and the attacker were not known to each other.

More than 40 per cent of fatal punches happen between midnight and 6am. An article on news.com.au stated that in 2013 there were 13 coward punches across Australia. The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education's most recent stats say that there are 70,000 victims of alcohol-related violence in Australia per year and that 14,000 of those victims require hospitalisation. Figures relating to alcohol-related deaths range from 376 to 5,500.

Regarding the media, despite it being several years since the launch of the one-punch laws in New South Wales, official figures on assaults and hospitalisations are yet to be revealed. However, Professor Kypros Kypri of the University of Newcastle's School of Medicine and Public Health said that independent evaluation had shown that in the past few years there have been large reductions in police apprehensions for assault and emergency department presentations for alcohol-related serious injury.

Sure, you can say that the 2 o'clock lockout and those sorts of things are also helping to keep us safer as a community and society but, clearly, this tool that the courts can use, if passed by our parliament, would add weight to the message that you should not coward punch. New South Wales Police Superintendent Pat Paroz said:

It is not normal to get intoxicated and then beat someone up and we shouldn't accept that, because a person was intoxicated, it somehow reduces their level of accountability for their actions.

I totally agree with that. If you want to go out and have a drink, that is fine, but if you are going to get into a crazy mindset and then want to go around punching people, potentially causing loss of life, then that should not be an excuse. Every Friday or Saturday night, while working at the hospital, St Vincent's Hospital's emergency department director, Gordian Fulde, treats four or five cases of king-hits. He has said, 'There is no reason for it,' and that 'usually the person is not expecting it'. That is why they now call them coward punches. On 5 August 2014, our former police commissioner, Gary Burns, said on FIVEaa:

We have had concerns about alcohol fuelled violence for a long time now and we're really sure that the way that needs to be progressed is that people take responsibility for their actions and using the excuse of drugs and alcohol, to me, isn't taking responsibility.

There is a statement also in the media from Ralph and Kathy Kelly, the parents of Thomas Kelly:

Too often, alcohol abuse and excessive drinking is actually used as a defence in court as an excuse for their criminal behaviour. The time for excuses is over.

I agree with them. Former prime minister Tony Abbott weighed in on the debate in January 2014, describing coward punches as acts of gratuitous violence which are unprovoked, committed by brutal people, indicating a vicious horrible change in society. He further went on to say:

The police, the courts, the judges ought to absolutely throw the book at people who perpetrate this kind of gratuitous unprovoked violence.

I happen to strongly agree with former prime minister Tony Abbott.

I will talk about one-punch legislation in other jurisdictions. As I said, this bill is based on legislation in New South Wales which requires the mandatory imprisonment for eight years for coward punches, a 20-year maximum sentence for anyone who unlawfully assaults another who dies as a result of this assault, and a minimum eight years if the person was intoxicated by alcohol or drugs. In New South Wales, this increased the existing maximum sentence by two years.

I understand that Queensland is considering legislation mirroring the New South Wales' model. This bill creates a minimum mandatory sentence of eight years and a maximum penalty of 25 years for assaults causing death where the offender is intoxicated by drugs, alcohol or a combination of both and is 16 years of age or older. An additional offence of assault causing death carries a penalty of not more than 20 years. The penalty is lower because this provision does not have the aggravating feature of intoxication.

I know what the government's answer will be: we should not have minimum mandatory sentencing and we should let the courts decide because the courts are the most knowledgeable on this and have all the evidence before them. Well, I do not disagree that the courts may be more knowledgeable on these cases because they specialise in the law. But we need to remember one thing: the courts do not make the laws. The courts interpret the laws as they are made by the Parliament of South Australia.

I believe that the community of South Australia, the majority of them, if members are talking to them, want something done to send a strong message to these perpetrators that South Australia will not tolerate abuse and violence and that, if they are going to go down the track of coward punches because they think it is alright for them to have a go at an innocent victim, they then suffer the consequences. Let us set the minimums and let the courts then decide between the minimum and what sentence they hand down based on the evidence of the case. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.A. Darley.