Thursday, 10 February 2022
Bills
Justice Legislation Amendment (Criminal Procedure Disclosure and Other Matters) Bill 2021
Bills
Justice Legislation Amendment (Criminal Procedure Disclosure and Other Matters) Bill 2021
Council’s amendments
Message from Council relating to following amendments considered:
Clause 1, page 2, after line 26 insert—
“(ca) to amend the Victims’ Charter Act 2006 in relation to information required to be given to victims; and”.
2. Page 61, after line 12 insert the following new Part heading—
“Part 4A—Information required to be given to victims”.
NEW CLAUSES
3. Insert the following New Clauses to follow clause 117 and the heading proposed by amendment 2—
‘117A Victim impact statements
After section 13(1) of the Victims’ Charter Act 2006 insert—
“(1A) The prosecuting agency must inform the victim, as soon as reasonably practicable after commencing to deal with that victim, of the victim’s entitlement under subsection (1) to make a victim impact statement.”.
117B Compensation and financial assistance for victims
After section 16(2) of the Victims’ Charter Act 2006 insert—
“(3) A prosecuting agency that is dealing with a victim must inform the victim of the victim’s possible entitlements under Divisions 1 and 2 of Part 4 of the Sentencing Act 1991 and refer the victim to any legal assistance available to them.”.’.
AMENDMENT OF LONG TITLE
4. Long title, after “sentence indications,” insert “to amend the Victims’ Charter Act 2006 in relation to information required to be given to victims,”.
That the amendments be agreed to.
This bill makes a number of amendments that will strengthen our justice system. The bill supports the government’s public commitment to complete all of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, firstly, by introducing a statutory obligation for informants to provide to the Director of Public Prosecutions all information, documents or things relevant to an alleged offence in proceedings conducted by the DPP, and where the material is subject to a claim of public interest immunity, privilege, statutory immunity or statutory disclosure restriction, the informant must notify the DPP of the existence of that material and provide it on request, delivering against recommendation 62; secondly, by requiring the informant to complete a disclosure certificate identifying relevant material not contained in the brief of evidence that is subject to a claim of privilege, public interest immunity, a legislative immunity or publication restriction, delivering against recommendation 63; thirdly, by clarifying that information relevant to the credibility of a prosecution witness must be disclosed to an accused, delivering against recommendation 66; and finally, by introducing a statutory mechanism for applicants to apply for a court order that excuses disclosure of relevant information to an accused person in a criminal proceeding non-disclosure order, delivering against recommendation 67.
The bill supports the government’s public commitment to complete all of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence by, firstly, clarifying the jurisdiction of the Children’s Court of Victoria to make commonwealth family law parenting orders, delivering against recommendation 133; and secondly, by permitting family violence victim-survivors to give evidence from a place other than the courtroom by means of remote technology, delivering against recommendation 71.
The bill will enable applicants to make public safety intervention order applications online to maximise the safety of victims of assault, sexual assault and harassment, property damage or interference with property, stalking and serious threats. This will improve access for these applicants, support more efficient court processes by allowing online applications and create consistency between public safety intervention order application and family violence intervention order application processes.
The bill will also give the office of the Chief Magistrate equivalence of seniority with the heads of jurisdiction of other generalist courts and tribunals, namely, the Chief Judge and the president of VCAT. These reforms recognise the significant demands of the Chief Magistrate’s role and will ensure that the position continues to attract candidates of the highest calibre.
Finally, the bill will expand the role of sentence indication hearings in the higher courts so as to support the continued effective and efficient functioning of the justice system and its recovery from COVID-19, including helping courts to manage and reduce a significant backlog of cases.
The bill was also admitted in the Council with amendments to the Victims’ Charter Act 2006 which will require the Office of Public Prosecutions to inform victims, firstly, as soon as reasonably practical after commencing to deal with that victim, of their entitlement to make a victim impact statement, and, secondly, of their possible entitlements to compensation under the Sentencing Act 1991 and to refer victims to any legal assistance available to them.
Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (15:10): I rise to speak on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Criminal Procedure Disclosure and Other Matters) Bill 2021 in relation to the amendments that were put forward in the Legislative Council by the Justice Party, and I rise to say that we will be supporting the amendments here in this chamber. I note that the minister raised some of the issues around the backlog in the courts. One of the reasons some of these amendments and the bill have been brought in is the mismanagement of what has been happening in our court system here in Victoria.
What we are seeing is a backlog in cases going to court, and the impact of that is on the victims. As we know, justice delayed is justice denied. It is creating a lot of pressure throughout our community, but it also places pressure on the justice system and the prison system, our corrections system. Currently our corrections system here in Victoria operates at just under $1 billion. That is $134 000, approximately, per person that goes through our system per year. If you compare that to other states, the average is around $99 000. It is about 35 per cent more here, and we have a higher rate of repeat offenders. We have got worse outcomes and we have got more problems within our system, and the backlog is part of the problem there. I do not get up to defend offenders very often, but if someone is put on remand and the remand is longer than the sentence they believe they could get in the system, that is a fault in the system. That is a fault and it is causing the delays, and that is why this bill was originally obviously put through.
One of the things we wanted to raise as a concern from this side is some of the amendments that have been put forward, which are amendments that if the government had done the proper consultation would have been resolved before this originally came to the Assembly here in Victoria, before it went through the lower house. It ended up in the upper house because the government just failed to listen. There are people on the crossbench from minor parties, obviously with the Liberal Party and the National Party. Not all good ideas directly come from the government. What we do say to the government though is that when you are bringing through such important and vital legislation that impacts so many, you will find on both sides of the house there are people who have an understanding in that area. That could be from the police due to the informants side of this. There are lawyers in this place who have been involved in courts. There are people in here who have been involved in the administrative side of courts. There are so many different areas of expertise within this place, and all we say to the government is: you do not have to rush to make yourselves out to be the heroes when you can get it done correctly and therefore the outcome is going to be better.
These amendments will impact on victims, and at the end of the day our entire Parliament should be standing up and protecting our victims rights. They go to the compensation and financial assistance for victims, and again it is something that is so important, because every single person in this place has had someone who has come into their office who is a victim of crime. They have already been treated badly enough due to a crime, but when they get treated poorly by the court system or an outcome that puts more pressure on them, that can actually be worse than the crime itself. So when you have legislation coming through around protecting victims rights, ensuring victims are heard, then every government—and this government particularly—has to make sure that those amendments are put through the correct process, or the bill is put through the correct process, and to stop relying on just those on the government benches.
The Justice Party has put these amendments forward. The Justice Party are not with us, and they probably vote with the government more than us, but they have put amendments forward during the committee stage in the upper house, and at every stage they denied by the Victorian Labor Party. It had to be forced to get these changes through. If only Labor had listened to them, it could have been something where there is an open and honest discussion on how our Parliament works and how the democracy should work.
Nothing will ever be perfect. We always know nothing will be perfect, but all we say is: you do not have to be so arrogant that you push it through without listening to those people with the expertise in the fields that are there. This is like groundhog day, because we are continuously seeing mistakes now. And the longer a government is in, the more they think they can just force things through without listening to those people and the others elected in this place, and that ends up with amendments like this. Obviously the arrogance of this government at the moment is just to force everything through without listening to anyone.
In the upper house at the moment it is probably going to be harder now that they have lost another member who decided to cross the floor and I understand is no longer a member of the Labor caucus—someone who stood up against the Victorian Labor Party, someone who has gone out and said they needed to be investigated for corruption. Congratulations to her. Well done. That is going to make it more difficult now, and I hope if there are any consequences of that, other than the poor treatment of the upper house member, that the Victorian Labor Party understand they now have to consult more broadly. They are going to have to find ways to get votes to ensure things are done correctly. I will tell you now: we will be willing to stand at the table and talk to them about legislation to ensure the outcomes for Victorians are better, that the outcomes of legislation are there to protect the people they are there to protect. If the government do not wish to do that, they are going to have more and more issues in the upper house, now that their numbers are looking harder and harder. The outcome for that at the moment is good for Victoria, because we are going to have a government that cannot force things through no matter how much they try.
I would say that the Labor Party now will probably prevent anything that is controversial from going through the upper house between now and the election and will just stick with what they have to have go through just to keep this place operating to ensure they can keep their pay cheques coming in. What they should be doing is still have everything go through this place to ensure that everybody is heard. We do not want to end up in this place again dealing with amendments because this government is failing to listen. We challenge the government from today on to use this as an opportunity to ensure that for legislation going through there is an opportunity for everyone to discuss it. When it is about victims of crime, when it is about Victoria Police, when it is about the law reform system, find people in this place who have the expertise and the skills to assist them to make sure that we do not end up in this position again where the government has tried to ram through legislation that is faulty and it has ended up back in this place, making them look silly when it comes back because they failed to speak to those that know best.
Motion agreed to.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Richards): A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.