2015-10-07
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — The Greens will be supporting the Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2015. This bill is one of a number of bills that we have seen come through the Parliament in the last couple of years with regard to serious sex offenders as we tackle the issues of how to deal with them in the justice and corrections systems. The Greens have supported those bills as they have come through the Parliament.
This bill aims to close gaps that still exist in the justice and corrections system and to enable police and Corrections Victoria to better manage serious sex offenders who are on supervision orders. The Greens, as I have said, will support the measures that are in this bill, as we have supported the other pieces of legislation and the majority of the recommendations to reform the parole system that were outlined in the Callinan review.
This bill does a number of things. One of the most important amendments in the bill is to create a presumption against bail under the Bail Act 1977 for any serious sex offender who is on a supervision order and who is subsequently charged with any indictable offence, including a non-sexual offence. In effect it puts this cohort of offenders who are on supervision orders in the same class as those who are accused of drug trafficking, for example, or smuggling, who must show cause why their detention and denial of bail are not justified.
We know that some serious sex offenders have been granted bail and/or parole — in this case we are talking about bail — and have gone on to commit horrendous crimes, including murdering women in the community. Of course this has caused massive heartache amongst the family members and close loved ones of those persons who have been killed, and amongst the community as a whole, who have been heartbroken by this and of course have been very concerned that those prisoners have been on the loose, to put it mildly.
The reviews that were done by Professor Ogloff and Justice Callinan, and reviews that have been undertaken by the Department of Justice and Regulation, have come to the consensus that there have been ongoing problems and gaps with regard to parole and bail. Justice Callinan identified the lack of coordination between the police and Corrections Victoria, which resulted in the police not knowing certain things and Corrections Victoria not knowing certain things. Therefore mistakes were being made in terms of the release of people on parole and the granting of bail where the decision should have been not to grant bail. The fact that those mistakes have resulted in the deaths and/or injuries of people is of ongoing concern to the community.
The bill will also give Victoria Police greater powers to enter the home of a serious sex offender to check if they are complying with their supervision order and to arrest them if they are in breach of it. The police can also direct the offender to take a drug and alcohol test. The bill will give Corrections Victoria staff more power to enable them to direct serious sex offenders on supervision orders who are in the community to obey instructions. It also gives the special emergency services group, which operates inside prisons, the power to respond to imminent safety concerns until the police arrive. These powers include the ability to use batons and capsicum spray if there is an immediate threat or hazard in order to protect themselves and other people.
The bill makes overseas child sex offences and the distribution of intimate body images a breach of a supervision order, and the bill explicitly provides for electronic monitoring of serious sex offenders to be for 24 hours of each day, with a device to be worn. Offenders can be jailed if they are found to be tampering with these devices.
The amendments in this bill come at a time when a comprehensive review, headed by former Supreme Court judge David Harper, into the management of a certain individual and the operation of the Serious Sex Offender (Detention and Supervision) Act 2009 is being undertaken. This review is also considering governance models for improved decision-making and case management between the criminal justice and mental health service systems in relation to these offenders. The review is due to report on 30 October. I agree with Mr O'Donohue that the government should release that report, because what is in that report will be of great community interest, given the circumstances behind the call for that review in the first place.
Supporting the reforms in this bill will be a new operational unit in the sex offenders management branch of Corrections Victoria. That unit will be made up of Victoria Police detectives, intelligence analysts and corrections staff. The unit is set to be fully operational by the end of the year. It will monitor, supervise, case manage and respond to identified risks from serious sex offenders who are subject to the serious sex offender scheme. That goes to the issue I was mentioning before that was identified by Justice Callinan, which was the lack of will and certainly failures in the coordination of information with regard to serious sex offenders, in particular those who are living in the community on supervision orders.
As I said, since there have been a number of significant failures within the justice and corrections system in the management of serious sex offenders, we know reforms in this area are still needed, and this bill goes some way to addressing them. The Greens support the special response unit being established and the review of the Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) Act 2009 (SSODSA) by former Supreme Court judge David Harper. It is essential that the corrections system is fully resourced to properly deal with serious sex offenders and that there is better decision-making by all the relevant authorities.
We have been concerned about the granting of bail for such offenders in the past in regard to the alleged commission of further serious offences and the failure to provide appropriate strict supervision when supervision orders have been in place. We know in a recent case a certain offender who was on a supervision order was in fact not being strictly supervised in the community and that led to a terrible tragedy. We must always ensure that serious sex offenders who pose an unacceptable risk to the community are placed in detention under the SSODSA.
Dealing with serious sex offenders is extremely difficult. It is one of the most difficult challenges facing the justice and corrections systems. We know of course that these people can be extremely deceptive and manipulative, and it can often be difficult to profile them from their records alone. The only particular issue that has been raised with us is the creation of the presumption against bail, but I think everyone in the community understands that protecting the community from this particular cohort of offenders does require this particular measure to be introduced into the Bail Act 1977.
I would also like to comment that the statement of compatibility prepared for this bill goes into quite a lot of comprehensive detail with regard to the human rights issues that are raised by the provisions in the bill. The statement of compatibility is very comprehensive, particularly informative and covers those areas very well, which I think is important when introducing into Parliament this type of legislation that has human rights implications. The statement of compatibility outlines why these provisions are needed to enhance community safety.