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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-30 Daily Xml
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Statutes Amendment (Attorney-General's Portfolio) (No 3) Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (17:19): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I introduce today the Statutes Amendment (Attorney-General's Portfolio) (No 3) Bill 2022. From time to time, an Attorney-General's portfolio bill is required to rectify minor errors, omissions and other deficiencies identified in legislation committed to the Attorney-General. Given the minor or technical nature of these amendments, it is often more efficient to deal with such matters in a single omnibus bill rather than in a separate amendment bill for each act.

This bill makes amendments to two acts within the Attorney-General's portfolio, being the Coroners Act 2003 and the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935. Part 2 of the bill makes a number of amendments to the Coroners Act to clarify how deaths which occur in accordance with the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 are to be treated under the Coroners Act.

In particular, part 2 of the bill amends section 3 of the Coroners Act to remove an amendment inserted by the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act which provides that the deaths that occur in accordance with the voluntary assisted dying scheme (VAD scheme) are reportable deaths for the purposes of the Coroners Act, and to insert a provision which expressly provides that deaths that occur in accordance with the VAD scheme are not reportable deaths for the purpose of the Coroners Act.

Currently, lawful deaths which occur in accordance with the VAD scheme, under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act when it commences, are reportable deaths for the purposes of the Coroners Act. Section 84(2) of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act requires that medical practitioners who provide care immediately before a person's death, or who examine the body of a person after death where the practitioner reasonably believes the person was the subject of a VAD permit, must notify the State Coroner of the death.

When a death is reportable for the purposes of the Coroners Act, the Coroner is required to make a finding as to the cause of death in each instance and must consider whether an inquest is required. The South Australian VAD scheme is largely based on the Victorian model, as set out in the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Victoria). However, unlike the South Australian Coroners Act, the definition of a reportable death in the Victorian Coroners Act 2008 expressly provides that a death that occurs in accordance with the Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying Act is not a reportable death.

Furthermore, the Victorian Coroners Act allows for the Coroner to determine that a death it has investigated is not a reportable death without the Coroner having to make findings of the cause of death. Unlike the Victorian Coroners Act, the South Australian Coroners Act provides that, if the State Coroner is notified of a reportable death, a finding as to the cause of death must be made by the State Coroner or the Coroners Court following an inquest. Consequently, there is no discretion for the State Coroner to investigate a reportable death without taking further action.

South Australia is the only jurisdiction where deaths that occur in accordance with a voluntary assisted dying scheme are treated as reportable deaths. It is clear that the full implications of making deaths under the South Australian VAD scheme reportable for the purposes of the Coroners Act were not fully appreciated at the time the legislation was debated in parliament.

Requiring the State Coroner to make a finding as to the cause of death for each death that occurs in accordance with the VAD scheme will have a significant impact on the workload of the State Coroner. More importantly, the government holds serious concerns that this requirement may lead to further delays in finalising the affairs of the person which, in turn, may further exacerbate the trauma of loved ones of the deceased.

This government has made a commitment to bring this legislation into operation as soon as practicable and we intend to deliver on that promise. Accordingly, the bill amends the Coroners Act to ensure that deaths which occur in accordance with the South Australian VAD scheme are treated under the Coroners Act in the same way as they are in other jurisdictions. Importantly, deaths which do not occur in accordance with the VAD scheme will not be excluded from the definition of reportable death for the purposes of the Coroners Act. These deaths will be subject to the existing processes set out in the Coroners Act.

As an additional measure, clause 4 of the bill amends section 39 of the Coroners Act to require the State Coroner to include the number of notifications received each year under section 84(2) of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 in the State Coroner's annual report. This will ensure that notifications which are received under section 84(2) are reported on with appropriate transparency and oversight.

Part 3 of the bill amends the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 to delete section 63A(3) of the act, which has become obsolete following the commencement of the Statutes Amendment (Child Sex Offences) Act 2022. The Statutes Amendment (Child Sex Offences) Act 2022 passed parliament earlier this year on 7 July 2022 and received royal assent on 14 July 2022. The Statutes Amendment (Child Sex Offences) Act 2022 made amendments to various acts and fulfilled a number of this government's election commitments in relation to child sex offences.

In particular, section 14 of that act made important changes to section 63A(1) of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 to apply one standard maximum penalty for offences relating to the possession of child exploitation materials, thereby removing the current penalty differentiation for first and subsequent offences. Section 14 of the act commenced on 1 October 2022. Despite this, section 63A(3) continues to refer to the distinction between the first and subsequent offences for possession of child exploitation material. As this provision no longer has any work to do, the bill deletes this section to avoid any potential confusion regarding the intended operation of section 63A(3).

While this bill contains a small number of measures, it implements a range of important reforms which will improve the efficiency and functioning of our justice system. I commend the bill to the house and seek leave to insert the explanation of clauses into Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Coroners Act 2003

3—Amendment of section 3—Interpretation

Subclause (1) makes a consequential amendment. Subclause (2) removes a provision that inserts into the definition of reportable death a death that occurs as a result of the administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance to a person in accordance with the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021. Subclause (3) inserts a provision into the interpretation provisions in the Act to make clear that the death of a person in such circumstances is not reportable.

4—Amendment of section 39—Annual report

This clause amends the annual reporting provisions in the Act to require the annual report to contain the number of notifications received by the State Coroner under section 84(2) of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021.

Part 3—Amendment of Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935

5—Amendment of section 63A—Possession of child exploitation material

This amendment removes subsection (3) which refers to various penalty provisions which were deleted from subsection (1) in a previous amendment Act.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (17:25): I rise to indicate that I am the lead speaker for the opposition and also to indicate the opposition's support for the bill. The part 3 amendment has been ably described by the Deputy Premier, and I will not add to those words except to endorse them. As to part 2 of the bill, really the observation that ought perhaps be emphasised is that, following the passage of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021, there is now a thoroughgoing regime in relation to the consideration of deaths that occur in accord with that act; therefore, there is no cause for duplication of a workload that would otherwise remain for the Coroner.

Secondly, I make the observation that this will provide in clause 4 for the capacity for communication between the two acts so far as reporting is concerned in respect of those notifications that will be received, if any, by the State Coroner under section 84(2) of that act. Yes, brief it is, it renders coherent the relevant provisions of the Coroners Act in circumstances of the passage of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act and otherwise does away with the redundant references in section 63A(3), the result of the removal of the distinction between basic and aggravated offences in that part by the passage of recent legislation. The bill is supported, and I certainly seek its speedy passage through the house.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (17:28): I appreciate the support from the opposition, the shadow attorney-general, and I commend the bill to the house.

Bill read a second time.

Third Reading

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (17:28): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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