The first of a raft of legislative changes promised by the government has been passed by the Legislative Assembly.
Legislation providing for a presumption against bail for serious violent offenders and giving police the power to search people for weapons with metal detectors in any public place was approved after the government used its numbers to prevent referral of the bills to the Legislation Scrutiny Committee.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said there would now be a presumption against bail for youth and adult serious violent offenders regardless of whether a weapon is involved. She said that breach of bail would become an offence for minors and there would be mandatory electronic monitoring for repeat serious offenders granted bail.
The presumption of against bail for adults would apply to anyone found guilty of two or more serious offences in the preceding two years as well as those alleged to have committed a serious offence while on bail for a serious offence.
The government said examples of a serious offence included possessing a dangerous drug, escaping custody and stealing. Examples of serious violent offence included threats to kill, recklessly endangering life, assaults and sexual offences.
The newly minted laws will give police more powers to scan for weapons, a practice known as ‘wanding’. Previously, use of hand-held metal detectors by police was restricted to specified “high risk” areas or a place the Police Commissioner suspected an offence with a weapon had been committed in the previous 12 hours or would be committed in the coming 12 hours.
Under the new laws, a police superintendent can authorise wanding use in any place for up to 72 hours. ‘Any place’ may include schools and public buses.
The Bail Legislation Amendment Bill, Police Administration Amendment Bill, Criminal Code Amendment Bill, the Liquor Legislation Further Amendment Bill and the Sentencing Amendment Bill were all introduced and debated in parliament today.
Most of the changes were announced following the stabbing murder of Declan Laverty who was killed by Keith Kerinauia while working his shift at the Airport Tavern BWS bottleshop in March 2023.
Only the first two bills were passed today. The remainder are expected to be passed during the present two-week sitting.
Declan’s mother Samara Laverty travelled from Queensland to be in the Chamber for the changes, and in particularly the two that passed today, because Kerinauia was on bail for a previous alleged assault when he murdered her son.
“Samara Laverty’s son, Declan, was murdered while at work, at the hands of someone out on bail for violent offending,” said Ms Finocchiaro.
“His death should never have happened, and the community demanded action. It’s taken the new CLP Government to deliver it.”
Ms Laverty said she hoped the changes to the law would help save others losing a family member.
“I could not have fought so hard for Declan without the constant and sheer unwavering support of my daughter, Declan’s baby sister, Bridget,” said Ms Laverty said in a government statement.
“She has been there for me every single step of the way. She is as much to thank for [Declan’s Law] as my fight has been.”
Yesterday, Leader of Government Business Steve Edgington announced the reintroduction of the Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which the Gunner Labor Government established in 2017 as two separate committees, and scrapped it its later form as one merged committee, on the first day of Parliament after it was elected in 2020.
Under the Sessional Orders, after the first reading of a bill the member in charge is to immediately move either a motion referring the bill to the scrutiny committee for report by a particular date, that it be “declared to be urgent”, or that the second reading of the bill be made an order of the day for the first assembly meeting after 28 days have elapsed.
However Mr Edgington’s urgency motion today meant the bills would not be referred to the Legislation Scrutiny Committee.
Independent Member for Johnston Justine Davis unsuccessfully moved a motion that the bills be referred to the scrutiny committee for inquiry and report.
The parliament heard that non-CLP members had only seen one of the five bills and that in a briefing on a bill on Monday, no hard copies were provided for members.
“I take this job very seriously. Every person in this Chamber has the same mandate, and that mandate is to make good laws for the Northern Territory. To do that we need to see what they are,” Ms Davis said.
“We’ve seen one of these laws, and we are going to be asked to consider them, understand their potential impacts and, to ask questions about it, to debate, to propose amendments if we can, without having even seen them.”
At times during the day and when it came to the second readings of each bill, the Opposition unsuccessfully moved that debate be adjourned.
The catch and release system is coming to an end. Our overworked police force have grown weary and cannot handle the workload. The previous government trained squads of youth justice officers to patrol the streets. What have they achieved apart from possibly being a taxi service to reunite wayward youths with their so called ‘responsible’ adults. We have heard nothing about their work since they were put on the streets. We have seen numbers fudged with PALIs being fast tracked as constables and then heralded as increasing police numbers. The police are so desperate for recruits that a 70 year old could pass the fitness test. Maybe I should apply!!
Territorians voted to end political inertia and bad policies. The CLP is showing that they have indeed listened to the community and that they are, in fact, prepared for the job ahead. What we are seeing now is the action they promised, and it is happening at light speed compared to anything Labor did. Let’s hope they maintain or even increase this momentum to address the catastrophic damage Labor inflicted over the past 8yrs.
In my opinion strict compliance to proper procedure appears lacking regardless of any potential outcome!
I note the following “ The parliament heard that non-CLP members had only seen one of the five bills and that in a briefing on a bill on Monday, no hard copies were provided for members.
“I take this job very seriously. Every person in this Chamber has the same mandate, and that mandate is to make good laws for the Northern Territory. To do that we need to see what they are,” Ms Davis said.”
This situation should not exist!
In addition this clause “ or that the second reading of the bill be made an order of the day for the first assembly meeting after 28 days have elapsed.”,
If l read correctly-“ At times during the day and when it came to the second readings of each bill, the Opposition unsuccessfully moved that debate be adjourned.” is yet another breach of compliance!
I also did not read any mention of a serious offence including an “ item that given the situational moment, would be reasonably assumed to constitute a weapon” !
I am also very concerned that this Chief Minister has referred a very serious case that lists corruption, bullying and serious breaches of “ The code of conduct” from both non and executive staff of a government department , to the Deputy Chief minister. l am lead to believe the Deputy Chief minister had previously been approached and responded apparently “ well they have removed the fines so there is not much to be done”!
More interestingly, not to mention the lag in response times, for some apparent reason the Chief minister has not referred the matter, such as would be procedurally correct, to the Minister that holds the mentioned department within her basket of portfolio’s!
It is important that l mention also that when l was invited to attend the CLP countdown to election this Chief minister, having failed for at least 3 months to respond to an email l sent, l took the chance to approach her and request 5 minutes of her time to hear my case. After hearing enough within a short briefing that listed corruption, bullying, procedural unfairness, serious breaches of the code of conduct and fraud.
This would be Chief minister stated “l wish you all the best with your issue( to the best of my memory) and did not respond “ Ok l would like to arrange a more formal meeting with you with a view to raising questions in parliament”! Only a true strong passionate leader would have responded as the latter!
My case was resolved in my favour in the fair work commission.
I am not amused-l foresee that very soon this Chief minister will hold the title “ shortest reign as Chief minister and shared with the, in my opinion, ineffective Deputy Chief Minister”
It’s a roll
I was so encouraged to see the CLP back in Power, But the action taken in relation to providing inadequate release of and time to review the New policies, (as much as I am so very pleased to see them), extremely concerning and and looks a lot like the same horse with a different name.
I am hoping to be able to report to my 28,000 listeners that the Chief Minister is not going down the ALP pathway.
the opposition is a minority, But it is elected by the people and needs to be treated in the way the Chief minister had tried to get the ALP to treat her party per-election.
I pray that Ms Finocchiaro will demonstrate her total fairness and openness in her interactions with the opposition so that we can all see that she is in fact the Fare and responsible leader that I voted for.
The instant action on this issue is absolutely Justified and it should have been instituted by the previous government. In this case I agree that there was no time to delay these absolutely essential law reforms. This will save lives as of Today!!! It will also send a Message to our amazing police Force that they are not just wasting their time and that there actions will contribute to immediately improving the community safety in the Territory.