Law Enforcement and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2007

Wednesday 5^th November 2007

Rev Fred Nile, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has supported the Law Enforcement and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2007 in the NSW Legislative Council.

“The Christian Democratic Party supports the Law Enforcement and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2007, which includes a number of aspects relating to different issues. One aspect is the Ombudsman's review of the emergency powers to prevent or control disorder. This bill makes permanent the emergency powers, enacted by the Parliament in response to the public disorder in Cronulla in 2005, and implements a number of Ombudsman recommendations arising out of a review, including various points such as requiring any authorisation to be appropriate to the emergency, allowing police to seize a wider range of things where they are satisfied this would assist in preventing or controlling public disorder, and creating a new power to allow police to deal with marshalling areas outside a target area.

The bill includes also provisions for intoxicated persons move-on powers. The Premier announced during the election campaign the commitment to create alcohol move-on powers. The new powers, based on the existing move-on powers in section 197 of the Act, will confer on police officers the power to give directions to a person in a group of three or more seriously intoxicated persons in a public place for any such person to leave the place and not return for a period that does not exceed six hours. The third area of the bill deals with serious sex offenders and provides that the primary object of the Crimes (Serious Sex Offenders) Act 2006 is the safety and protection of community and the secondary object is to encourage serious sex offenders to undertake rehabilitation.

The fourth aspect of the bill relates to terrorism under the Terrorism (Police Powers) at 2002. The bill makes a number of changes to the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act 2002 following a statutory review of the Act. These changes clarify the existing power to stop, enter and search vehicles, vessels and aircraft; the power to search for a person who is subject to a preventative detention order; and other important aspects. The Greens criticised this legislation but made no reference that it is based on recommendations from the Ombudsman, who represents the concerns of the citizens. Those recommendations have been incorporated in the legislation. We support the bill”, Rev Fred Nile stated in Parliament.