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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-05 Daily Xml
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Criminal Law Consolidation (Defences—Intoxication) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (12:52): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today I introduce the Criminal Law Consolidation (Defences—Intoxication) Amendment Bill 2025 to this house following its passage through the other place. I do so with a heavy heart and, like the many who have dedicated themselves to preventing and eradicating the scourge of domestic, family and sexual violence, with anger and frustration that it continues.

On 12 March 2022, Mr Cody James Edwards brutally killed his partner Ms Synamin Bell. Mr Edwards was charged with Ms Bell's murder, but was able to plead guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced on the basis that he had acted in excessive self-defence due to his belief that Ms Bell intended to kill him, a drug-induced delusion caused by his consumption of illicit drugs.

I introduce this bill also with the offering of love and wholehearted condolences to all who loved and knew Ms Bell. I am sure her family and her friends must be absolutely bereft and my heart aches for them. In the face of their grief, Ms Bell's family have so generously and so courageously called for legislative change. I carry them in my heart today as we debate this bill, and I will continue to do so. There is never an excuse for violence, and a self-induced delusion is absolutely not one.

On 6 September 2024 Mr Edwards was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years and 10 months. This case has so very tragically highlighted that the law in our state, as it now stands, enables a person who has been charged with murder to rely on the partial defence of excessive self-defence, a partial defence which can reduce a person's criminal liability from murder to manslaughter based on their genuinely held belief that their conduct was necessary and reasonable to defend themselves, even if that belief was formed on the basis of delusions or hallucinations, and even if those delusions or hallucinations were caused by self-induced intoxication.

This is, frankly, absolutely not good enough. It is clear from our community's justifiable outrage about the outcome of this horrific case that this reduction in liability is utterly inconsistent with community expectation. It is clear from that outrage, and also from the feedback received through YourSAy, that a person should not be able to rely on their self-induced intoxication to reduce their murder charge to manslaughter.

I am angry about, and utterly devastated by, the ongoing deaths of women at the hands of those who are supposed to love them, and frustrated by the gender inequality and harmful attitudes towards women that drive this scourge. We need this violence to stop, and we need every person and every organisation to use every lever possible until this violence is no more. Our government is determined to use everything within our power and our every lever to drive change across prevention, intervention, response, recovery and healing—and we are.

We take seriously our responsibility to play our part and to lead work across the state that helps to prevent and eradicate domestic, family and sexual violence. The state government has progressed comprehensive policy, investment and legislative reform to combat domestic, family and sexual violence, including introducing legislation to criminalise coercive control (which has now passed this house), mandating electronic monitoring and bail conditions for those who violently breach domestic violence-related intervention orders, enshrining 15 days' paid domestic, family and sexual violence leave in the South Australian Fair Work Act, including the experience of domestic, family and sexual violence as a ground of discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act, whilst also establishing crucial support systems through funding new and existing DV prevention hubs, supporting perpetrator intervention programs and court assistance services, and addressing housing insecurity.

This bill is another concrete action focused on helping to prevent and eradicate the horrific and deeply unacceptable prevalence of violence against women. Through this bill, we seek again to tackle this prevalence by amending the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 to exclude the availability of excessive self-defence where a person's genuine belief that their conduct was necessary and reasonable to defend themselves has arisen from the voluntary and non-therapeutic consumption of a drug.

Part 2 of the bill makes the following amendments to the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935. Clauses 3 and 4 insert new sections 15(2a) and 15A(2a) to exclude the availability of excessive self-defence in relation to a charge of murder if the prosecution proves, beyond reasonable doubt, that the defendant's genuine belief that their actions were necessary and reasonable for a defensive purpose was substantially affected by the voluntary and non-therapeutic consumption of a drug.

The exclusion of the partial defence of excessive self-defence in these circumstances will apply to both defence of persons and property to ensure a consistent application of the partial defence. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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