Strict liability offences
Mr RICH-PHILLIPS (South Eastern Metropolitan) (11:02): My question is to the Attorney-General. The Australian Law Reform Commission has outlined principles for the creation of strict liability criminal offences in legislation. These include that strict liability should not be used, and I quote, ‘where parties must by necessity rely on information from third parties’ and that strict liability should only be used where monetary penalties do not exceed 60 penalty units. Why has the government introduced legislation, including the Forests Legislation Amendment (Compliance and Enforcement) Bill 2019, which breaches those principles?
Mr Rich-Phillips: The example I used was the Forests Legislation Amendment (Compliance and Enforcement) Bill, but that is just an example.
Ms SYMES: Sure. Well, Mr Rich-Phillips, I guess the simple answer is that when government is developing legislation, and indeed within my portfolio, you consider a range of factors about how the form of a law is fit for purpose. And in the way that bills are brought to cabinet through our process there are coordination comments that go through a variety of departments so that everybody can feed in to make sure that you have the best workable laws for the issue that you are trying to address.
Mr RICH-PHILLIPS (South Eastern Metropolitan) (11:03): I thank the Attorney for her answer. Attorney, the commonwealth department of justice has guidelines on the use of strict liability, the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills has guidelines on the use of strict liability and the Australian Law Reform Commission has guidelines on the use of strict liability. It does not appear that the Victorian department of justice has any guidelines or policies on the use of strict liability offences, so what guidelines or policies does the Victorian government rely on in implementing strict liability?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (11:04): I thank Mr Rich-Phillips for his supplementary question. The references that you make in relation to the Australian Law Reform Commission and guidelines from other jurisdictions are not laws. It is up to each state to implement their own laws. In relation to criminal laws, that is a state responsibility, and each state will make the laws as they see fit for how they apply to each state. The commonwealth guidelines that you have identified apply to commonwealth lawmaking, not state lawmaking, and when it comes to making laws in the state of Victoria we consider a range of factors and, as I have indicated, receive a lot of advice from different departments around the best ways our laws should apply to Victorians.