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CRIMES LEGISLATION (DANGEROUS ARTICLES)
AMENDMENT BILL 1994
NEW SOUTH WALES
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This Explanatory Note relates to this Bill as introduced into Parliament)
The objects of this Bill are to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to provide a defence of
self-defence for the possession of certain dangerous articles, and to amend the
Prohibited Weapons Act 1989 to provide that the possession or use of certain prohibited
weapons is no longer to be an offence.
Clause 1 specifies the short title of the proposed Act.
Clause 2 provides that the proposed Act is to commence on assent.
Clause 3 amends the Crimes Act 1900 to provide that a person is not guilty of an
offence of possessing anything (other than a firearm) capable of discharging irritant
matter or any substance capable of causing bodily harm, if the person satisfies the court
that he or she possessed it for the purpose of self-defence and that it was reasonable in
the circumstances to possess it for that purpose.
Clause 4 amends the Prohibited Weapons Act 1989 to exclude articles specified in
item (40) of Schedule 1 to that Act from the offence of possessing or using a prohibited
weapon. Item (40) covers anything designed or intended as a defence or anti-personnel
spray that is capable of discharging by any means any irritant matter in liquid, powder,
gas or chemical form.
Clause 5 is a transitional provision for the amendment (in clause 3) of the Crimes
Act 1900. It enables the defence of self-defence to be raised in existing as well as new
offences dealt with by the amendment, unless the accused was charged before the
commencement of the proposed Act.