DISORDERLY HOUSES AMENDMENT BILL 1995 Explanatory Notes
DISORDERLY HOUSES AMENDMENT BILL 1995
[Act 1995 No 53]New South Wales
Disorderly Houses Amendment Bill
1995
Explanatory note
This explanatory note relates to this Bill as introduced into Parliament.*
Overview of Bill
The objects of this Bill are:
(a)
to amend the Disorderly Houses Act 1943:
* to remove the habitual use of premises for prostitution from the
grounds for declaring premises to be a disorderly house, and
* to enable a local council to apply to the Land and Environment
Court for an order that a brothel operating in the council's area
be closed down (or a prescribed authority in the case of land
outside a local government area), and
* Amended in committee--see table at end of volume.
Disorderly Houses Amendment Bill 1995 [Act 1995 No 53]
Explanatory note
(b) to amend the Summary Offences Act 1988:
*
to provide that it is not an offence for a person who owns,
manages or is employed in a brothel to live on the earnings of
prostitution of another person, and
*
to create an offence of inducing a person, by coercive conduct
or undue influence, to commit an act of prostitution or to
surrender the proceeds of an act of prostitution, and
(c)
to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to abolish the common law offence of
keeping a common bawdy house or brothel, and
(d)
to amend the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 consequentially.
Outline of provisions
Clause 1 sets out the name (also called the short title) of the proposed Act.
Clause 2 provides that the proposed Act will commence on a day or days
to be appointed by proclamation.
Clause 3 is a formal provision that gives effect to the Schedule of
amendments to the Disorderly Houses Act 1943.
Clause 4 is a formal provision that gives effect to the Schedule of related
amendments to certain other Acts.
Schedule 1 Amendment of Disorderly Houses Act 1943
Schedule 1 [4] removes from the list of grounds for declaring premises a
disorderly house the ground that the premises are habitually used for the
purpose of prostitution.
Schedule 1 [7] inserts new provisions into the Act relating to brothels
(defined by Schedule 1 [2] as meaning premises habitually used for the
purposes of prostitution, or that have been used for that purpose and are
likely to be used again for that purpose, whether by one or more prostitutes).
Proposed section 16 prevents premises being declared a disorderly house
solely because the premises are a brothel or because a person involved in the
control or management of the premises has previously been involved in the
control or management of a brothel declared to be a disorderly house.
Explanatory note page 2
Disorderly Houses Amendment Bill 1995 [Act 1995 No 53]
Explanatory note
Proposed section 17 enables the Land and Environment Court to make an
order against an owner or occupier of premises used as a brothel that the
owner or occupier not use or allow the premises to be used as a brothel if the
council for the local government area in which the brothel is situated applies
for the making of the order. The council must not make the application
unless it has received complaints from residents of the area living or using
facilities in the vicinity of the brothel or occupiers of premises situated in the
area in the vicinity and it must base the application on one or more of the
specified considerations that the Land and Environment Court must take into
account when determining the application. Those considerations include
whether the operation of the brothel causes disturbance of the
neighbourhood because of hours of operation, creation of noise or the
amount of traffic, whether the brothel is operating near or within view from
a church, hospital, school or place regularly frequented by children for
recreational or cultural activities and whether the operation of the brothel
interferes with the amenity of the neighbourhood. The proposed clause
extends to areas that are not local government areas and enables a prescribed
authority to make an application in such a case.
Proposed section 18 enables the Land and Environment Court to make
appropriate rules of court in relation to the operation of the new provisions.
Proposed section 19 enables regulations to be made for the purposes of the
Act.
Schedule 1 [5] enables the Supreme Court to receive an application to
rescind a declaration of premises as a disorderly house if the premises could
not have been declared a disorderly house after the new amendments.
Schedule 1 [1]-[3] and [6] contain consequential amendments.
Schedule 2 Related amendment of other Acts
Crimes Act 1900
Schedule 2.1 abolishes the common law offence of keeping a common
bawdy house or brothel.
Land and Environment Court Act 1979
Schedule 2.2 includes applications under proposed section 17 of the
Disorderly Houses Act 1943 in Class 4 of the jurisdiction of the Land and
Environment Court (environmental planning protection and development
contract civil enforcement).
Explanatory note page 3
Disorderly Houses Amendment Bill 1995 [Act 1995 No 53]
Explanatory note
Summary Offences Act 1988
Schedule 2.3 [1] provides that it is not an offence for a person who owns,
manages or is employed in a brothel to live on the earnings of prostitution of
another person.
Schedule 2.3 [2] makes it an offence for a person, by coercive conduct or
undue influence, to cause or induce another person to commit an act of
prostitution or to surrender the proceeds of an act of prostitution. The
maximum penalty is 50 penalty units (currently $5,000) or imprisonment for
12 months, or both. The provisions relating to child prostitution in the
Crimes Act 1900 are not affected.
Schedule 2.3 [3] is consequential on the amendment made to the Crimes
Act 1900.
Explanatory note page 4