House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-26 Daily Xml

Contents

SPENT CONVICTIONS

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (15:13): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney ascertain why the spent convictions legislation appears not to be fully implemented? I have had two people contact me in the last week, both relating to minor larceny offences—one 43 years ago and the other 14 years ago—which are still on their police clearance certificate.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:13): I thank the member for Fisher for his question. As members would know, he has had a longstanding interest in this particular area of the law and has spent some time moving matters in this place. He has also written to me regularly about these matters, so I do appreciate his interest in the matter. As the member would appreciate, there have been some changes in the not too distant past to the spent convictions legislation which were designed to deal with the perceived anomalies—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is called to order. The member for Heysen is warned for the second and final time, and we would not want to see petrol prices cause her eviction for the second sitting day in a row.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Can I say that I would be very happy to look at the particular matters to which the member refers and see whether there has been any obvious difficulty in relation to the application of the law in those matters or whether the law itself needs further modification. I would be happy to look at those matters.

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader.