Criminal Law Consolidation (Assaults on Prescribed Emergency Workers) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (18:14): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation and the detailed explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading them.

Leave granted.

Today I introduce the Criminal Law Consolidation (Assaults on Prescribed Emergency Workers) Amendment Bill 2019. The Bill achieves a number of things with the intention of better protecting the State's police, emergency services workers and other law enforcement officers and front-line health workers.

The major consequence of this Bill is to create a new offence in the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 where a person spits at or throws or otherwise applies blood, saliva, semen, faeces, urine or vomit on a prescribed emergency worker acting in the course of their duties.

A prescribed emergency worker is defined to mean a paid worker or a volunteer who is a police officer; prison officer; community corrections officer or community youth justice officer; youth training centre officer; person performing duties in the accident or emergency department of hospital or performing duties in the course of retrieval medicine; a medical or health practitioner attending an out of hours callout or an committed the offence against a police officer, prison officer or other law enforcement officer knowing the victim to be acting in the course of his or her official duty or in retribution for something the offender knows or believes to have been done by the victim in the course of his or her official duty. The Bill adds employees in training centres to this list of workers as they are not strictly speaking 'prison officers'. This change will ensure that the aggravated form of offending extends to those victims whose duties include the supervision of youths detained in a training centre. The Bill also adds to this list the occupations of community corrections officers and community youth justice officers.

Section 5AA(1 )(k)(ii) extends the aggravated form of offending to victims who are engaged in other classes of prescribed occupations or employment. The Regulations currently prescribe for the purposes of section 5AA(1)(k)(ii) emergency work; employment as a medical practitioner in a hospital; employment as a nurse or midwife in a hospital; an occupation consisting of the provision of assistance or services, in a hospital, to a medical practitioner, nurse or midwife acting in the course of his or her employment in the hospital; and passenger transport work. Emergency work means work carried out (whether or not in response to an emergency) by or on behalf of the Country Fire Service, Metropolitan Fire Service, State Emergency Service, SA Ambulance Service, St John Ambulance, Surf Life Saving, Royal Flying Doctor Service, a member of Volunteer Marine Rescue, and the accident or emergency department of a hospital.20 of the Act, the offence of recklessly causing harm in section 24(2) of the Act, and the offence relating to acts likely to cause harm in section 29(3) of the Act.

The Bill also amends the Sentencing Act 2017 so that when a court is sentencing an offender for an offence the court must take into account in setting a penalty the need to protect police and other emergency services workers.

Finally, the Bill repeals the assault police offence in section 6(1) of the Summary Offences Act 1953. The maximum penalty for this offence is a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for two years. The Government expects that these assaults will instead be charged as aggravated assaults under section 20 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act where the maximum penalty as amended by this Bill will be five years imprisonment or, where the assault causes harm, seven years imprisonment.

I commend the Bill to Members.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935

4—Amendment of section 5AA—Aggravated offences

This section adds to the circumstances in which an offence will be considered to be aggravated, namely where an offence is committed against a community corrections officer, a community youth justice officer or an employee of a training centre.

In cases of offences against the person, volunteers acting in the course of their duties and engaged in a prescribed occupation or employment are also captured by the aggravated offence regime by way of this amendment.

5—Amendment of section 19—Unlawful threats

This section adds a harsher penalty for the section 19(2) offence where the unlawful threat is made towards a person captured by the amended section 5AA(1)(c) or (ka); that is police officers, prison officers, training centre employees, other law enforcement officers or persons engaged in prescribed occupations or employment.

6—Amendment of section 20—Assault

This section similarly adds a harsher penalty for assault where the offence is committed against the same persons as outlined in the explanation of clause 5.

7—Insertion of sections 20AA and 20AB

Section 20AA creates a new offence of intentionally causing, or threatening to cause, human biological material (blood, saliva, semen, faeces, urine or vomit) to come into contact with a prescribed emergency worker, which is defined to include a number of persons including police officers, employees in training centres, persons performing duties in emergency departments or members of the SA Ambulance Service Inc. The list of prescribed emergency workers is comprehensive and can be further expanded by regulation. The offence will apply whether the victim was acting in a paid or voluntary capacity, and the penalty for this offence is greater where harm is caused.

Section 20AB creates a similar offence to that in section 20AA, but with lesser penalties, of intentionally causing, or threatening to cause, human biological material to come into contact with any person.

Section 20AC provides an avenue for a jury to find a defendant guilty of assault (section 20) as an alternative verdict to the section 20AA and 20AB offences.

8—Amendment of section 24—Causing harm

Similarly to the amendments made to sections 19 and 20, this section amends section 24 to add a harsher penalty for causing harm where the offence is committed against certain persons as outlined in the explanation for clause 5.

9—Amendment of section 29—Acts endangering life or creating risk of serious harm

This section similarly adds a harsher penalty for the section 29 offence where the offence is committed against certain persons as outlined in the explanation for clause 5.

Schedule 1—Related Amendments

Part 1—Amendment of Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Act 2007

1—Amendment of section 20A—Interpretation

This section amends the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Act 2007 to allow, in accordance with section 20B of that Act, a senior police officer to require a person to provide a blood sample where they, inter alia, have been charged with an offence against proposed section 20AA.

Part 2—Related amendments of Sentencing Act 2017

2—Amendment of section 4—Secondary sentencing purpose

This section adds to the list of secondary sentencing purposes to include the deterrence of defendants and others in the community from harming certain persons, including police officers, emergency services workers and certain health workers. This section specifically refers to prescribed emergency workers within the meaning of proposed section 20AA.

Part 3—Amendment of Summary Offences Act 1953

3—Amendment of section 6—Hindering police

This section removes the subsection (1) offence of assaulting a police officer in the execution of the officer's duties.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.