Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill

The commencement clauses contained in clauses 1 and 2 of the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill relating to revised offence provisions, the new provision on arrest without a warrant, and the amendments to the Bail Act will come into force immediately following this bill’s assent. Proposed new Part 6A of the Domestic Violence Act, which concerns the police safety orders and is to be inserted by clause 7 of the bill, and the amendments to the Sentencing Act 2002 that are made by Part 2 of the bill and enable the criminal courts to make protection orders, will come into force on 1 July 2010. The additional time allowed before those proposals come into force will allow for the development of processes and for system changes and training to be completed.

In respect of the matters that have been raised by the Hon Ruth Dyson, I will take a moment to address those, because they are fair questions. The first reassurance that I want to give the member and the Committee of the whole House is that, in respect of the domestic protection orders, we were keen to move that part of the legislation that was previously on the Order Paper swiftly, which is why it was introduced and extracted from the remaining legislation. The second bill that was introduced to the House, which we are debating now, was introduced, in a way, to cover some of the issues that have been raised by the member in her first contribution to the debate on Part 1, but particularly because I was keen to see a particular international instrument taken care of as part of this bill. I reassure the member that the reason the original bill is still on the Order Paper today, and will remain on the Order Paper, is that those matters she has raised are still under active consideration.

I will talk briefly to the title and commencement clauses, because there was some discussion at the Justice and Electoral Committee when the bill was referred to it as the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill. The Minister originally set out that the legislation would come into force only on the date to be appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council. That was not satisfactory to the committee. The view was that the legislation should be time-bound, which eventually was the case, with provisions coming into force on 1 July 2010.

Of course, those provisions will still affect only a particular group of people, as set out in Part 3, which talks about the amendments to the Bail Act. We have already considered that children, for instance, are defined as being those aged up to the age of 17, as described by the Domestic Violence Act. Regardless of when this bill comes into force, because of its drafting there is a significant group of young people who some of us on this side of the Chamber consider will be neglected by this bill. I look forward to expanding on that issue in my speech during the third reading debate.

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2 agreed to.

The Committee divided the bill into the Domestic Violence Amendment Bill, the Sentencing Amendment Bill (No 2), and the Bail Amendment Bill (No 2), pursuant to Supplementary Order Paper 71.

Bill reported with amendment.

Report adopted.