Queensland Bills Explanatory Notes Queensland Bills Explanatory Notes[Index] [Search] [Download] [Bill] [Help]
1
Criminal Law Amendment
CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT BILL
1999
EXPLANATORY NOTES
GENERAL OUTLINE
Objectives of the Legislation
The objective of the Bill is to address community concerns about the
availability of information about the whereabouts of convicted child sex
offenders and to take the decision making process about releasing such
information out of the political arena.
Reasons for the objectives and how they will be achieved
The Bill will remove the Attorney-General as the person who can
disclose information under s 20 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1945
about offences of a sexual nature committed by a person ordered to report
his or her address under section 19 of that Act. Instead, the Queensland
Community Corrections Board (QCCB) will have the discretion. The
QCCB will also have the power to disclose other relevant information such
as the address of the offender, any change of name and the modus operandi
of the offender. Also, when considering an application the QCCB will be
able to identify other persons, with a legitimate and sufficient interest, to
whom the information should be released.
Administrative cost to Government of implementation
There will be minimal administrative cost to government. The
Department of Corrective Services estimates the costs associated with the
development and operation of a registry for the disclosure of information
pursuant to section 20 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1945 to be in
the order of c. $144 756 p.a.
2
Criminal Law Amendment
It is expected that the QCCB will be required to schedule specific
meetings to consider applications made for the release of information.
Members of the Board are paid per meeting.
Fundamental legislative principles
The release of information could be viewed as a restriction on the liberty
of a convicted child sex offender. The amendments, together with
Ministerial Guidelines, and the capacity to impose conditions on the release,
the offence provision for failing to abide the conditions, and the requirement
to prove a legitimate and sufficient interest, when taken together, provide an
appropriate balance to safeguard the interests of the convicted child sex
offender and the interest of citizens in obtaining the information.
Consultation
Consultation took place between the Honourable the Attorney-General
and Minister for Justice and Minister for the Arts and the Honourable the
Minister for Police and Minister for Corrective Services and their respective
departments. The views of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Bar
Association of Queensland, Queensland Law Society, Council for Civil
Liberties, Commissioner of Police, and the Minister for Families Youth and
Community Care were also sought. The Bar Association of Queensland
and Council for Civil Liberties did not respond.
NOTES ON PROVISIONS
PART 1--PRELIMINARY
Clause 1 sets out the Act's short title as being the Criminal Law
Amendment Act 1999.
Clause 2 states that the Act commences on a day to be fixed by
proclamation.
3
Criminal Law Amendment
PART 2--AMENDMENT OF THE CRIMINAL LAW
AMENDMENT ACT 1945
Clause 3 states that this part amends the Criminal Law Amendment Act
1945.
Clause 4 amends section 19 of the Act by adding a power for the court to
order the offender to report his or her name change. Also, subsection (5) is
repealed so that if a rehabilitation period is capable of running under the
Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 in relation to a
conviction for which a reporting order is made under section 19(1) then the
expiration of that period will no longer over-ride the reporting order.
Clause 5 amends section 20 of the Act by replacing the Attorney-General
with the QCCB as the body which can release information under that
section. The Board will be able to do so on application only. The applicant
can be either a police officer or a corrective services officer or a person
claiming to have a legitimate and sufficient interest in having the
information. As well as information about any offence of a sexual nature of
which the person subject to a reporting order under section 19 has been
convicted (as the law currently stands) the section will allow the Board to
release other relevant information. The Board will be able to release the
information to either a person nominated in the application if the person has
a legitimate and sufficient interest in having it, or to any other person who
the board, on considering the application, considers has a legitimate and
sufficient interest in having the information.
Also, to remove any doubt about the interpretation of the section, it will
state that when a convicted child sex offender is ordered to report, all sex
offences committed by that person become relevant for the purpose of
deciding what information, if any, should be released, that is--
· Whether or not the conviction was a conviction for which the
reporting order under section 19 was made;
· Whether the conviction was recorded before or after the order;
· Whether the offence for which the conviction was recorded was
committed before or after the order.
4
Criminal Law Amendment
Clause 6 inserts a new section 22 to declare that the expiration of a
rehabilitation period under the Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders)
Act 1986 in relation to a conviction mentioned in section 19(1) has no effect
on the power to make an order, the effect of an order, the obligation of an
offender to comply with an order or the provision of information under
section 20. Also, the clause will ensure that a rehabilitation period will not
prevent the release of information under section 20 about offences other
than the offence that triggers a section 19(1) reporting order to be made. It
is intended that the QCCB should be able to release information about other
sex offences irrespective of whether a rehabilitation period has expired for
that offence. Otherwise, the QCCB would be restricted to releasing
information about only those other sex offences for which a rehabilitation
period has not expired.
Clause 7 inserts a new part 5 in the Act for transitional provisions and
inserts a new section 23 (Transitional provision for the Criminal Law
Amendment Act 1999). The new section will state that for section 20(1)(b),
that is for the purpose of deciding what details of an offence of a sexual
nature of which the person has been convicted should be released, the
following is immaterial--
· Whether the order under section 19(1) to which the offender is
subject was made before or after the commencement of clause 5
above. (It is intended that section 20 should apply to orders made
under section 19(1) before or after the commencement of the
amending Act; ie to existing and future orders. Otherwise, the
QCCB would be restricted to releasing information only with
respect to persons against whom orders under section 19(1) are
made after the commencement of the amending Act.);
· Whether the conviction was recorded before or after the
commencement of clause 5 above;
· Whether the offence for which the conviction was recorded was
committed before or after the commencement of clause 5 above;
Similarly, for the new section 22 in relation to the ineffect of
rehabilitation periods on reporting orders, it will be immaterial whether the
reporting order was made, or the conviction for which the order was made,
or the offence for which the conviction was recorded, was committed before
or after the commencement of the Act.
5
Criminal Law Amendment
PART 3--AMENDMENT OF THE CORRECTIVE
SERVICES ACT 1988
Clause 8 states that this part amends the Corrective Services Act 1988.
Clause 9 amends section 139 of the Act to extend the power of the
Minister to issue guidelines for the exercise of functions conferred on the
Board by another Act.
PART 4-- MINOR AND CONSEQUENTIAL
AMENDEMNTS
Clause 10 provides that the schedule amends the Acts mentioned in it.
SCHEDULE
The schedule makes minor and consequential amendments to a number
of Acts.
CORRECTIVE SERVICES ACT 1988
Items 1 to 3 renumber references to Part 4 of the Criminal Law
Amendment Act 1945 as references to Part 3.
6
Criminal Law Amendment
CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT ACT 1945
Item 1 renumbers part 4 as part 2 since parts 2 and 3 (which had
amended the Criminal Code and Justices Act 1886) were omitted under the
Reprints Act 1992.
Item 2 omits the words `Indeterminate Detention and' from the heading
of part 2, as renumbered, so that the part (ie section 17) deals only with
`Probation orders in cases of convictions for sexual offences'.
Item 3 inserts before section 18 a new part 3 and heading `Indeterminate
Detention of Offenders Convicted of Sexual Offences'.
Item 4 removes a redundant reference to psychiatric clinics.
Item 5 inserts before section 19 a new part 4 and heading `Sexual
Offenders to Report'.
Item 6 omits the reference in section 21(1) to section 20(3) and inserts a
reference to section 20(6) as renumbered by the amending Act.
PUBLIC TRUSTEE ACT 1978
Item 1 renumbers a reference to Part 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment
Act 1945 as a reference to Part 3.
© The State of Queensland 1999