Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT BILL 2003

(This an uncorrected proof of the daily report. It is made available under the condition that it is recognised as such.)

Madam Speaker, I move that the bills be now read a second time.

These bills are introduced to send a message to people who deliberately light fires or who otherwise recklessly light fires. The bills are straightforward because they simply substitute higher penalties than those that are currently prescribed, so it is unnecessary for me to go through the proposed amendments at length or in detail.

The Criminal Code amendment proposes that the penalty of deliberately lighting fires is increased from 14 years to 20 years. That sends a strong message to firebugs. It also demonstrates to those administering the law how seriously this parliament – or certainly those who sit on this side of the House – regard this sort of conduct.

The amendment to the Bushfires Act, although referring to penalty units rather than financial penalties as is required with the drafting of legislation these days, in essence proposes that fines be increased from $1000 or six months gaol to $20 000 or five years gaol for various offences specified in sections 35, 38, 39, 41 and 44 of the principal act which are generally as provisions that deal with recklessness or inattention when lighting fires.

I introduce these bills for a number of reasons. First, they are introduced as a member of this parliament representing people in Alice Springs. Last year, there were horrific bush fires around Alice Springs, and they were regarded by many as the worst in 30 years. Approximately one million hectares of land was lost and it included parks, pastoral leases and private property. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but that was lucky. Certainly, people put their lives at risk when fighting those fires and fires came dangerously close to some homesteads.

It is important for members to know that there were significant stock losses. There was also a significant loss of land, worked by the Territory’s fine pastoralists, many of whom also lost plant and equipment. Many pastoralists are out of pocket as a result of these fires. One pastoralist recently told of his frustration at the ridiculously low fine imposed on three people convicted of starting fires. His frustration was made worse when the damage it caused to his property was in the region of $20 000. Another pastoralist I know worked with his family and others around the clock to protect his property. He spent days and days fighting the fires and surveying the damage, and assessing the fires by air, using hundreds of dollars in fuel. And as the fires were coming in from a number of directions, the family thought, at one point, that their home may be lost.

Madam Speaker, I suggest that we all pause to consider what that means to people’s lives in a year that has seen, and continues to see, one of the worst droughts in memory. Many of those fires in Central Australia were deliberately lit, and many pastoralists want higher penalties and rightly so.

Secondly, I introduce these bills because part of my electorate takes in an area with large rural blocks, namely the area of Ilparpa, and there have been fires in recent times in Ilparpa, many of which have been deliberately lit. My constituents and their families live Ilparpa and are sick and tired of fighting fires. They are sick and tired of their homes and properties being put at risk. Clearly, I have a real interest, as their local member, in doing what I can to send a strong message to fire bugs, by increasing penalties for deliberately lighting fires.

Thirdly, Madam Speaker, in my capacity as shadow minister for Parks and Wildlife, I not only have a interest, but also a responsibility to do all that I can to ensure that our parks are protected. The fact is that the fires in Central Australia last year caused damage to our parks, a wonderful resource that people from all around the world come to see. However fires, and the deliberate or reckless lighting of them, does not just affect people in Central Australia, in the Top End, in the dry season, the region faces obvious dangers.

Fourthly, Madam Speaker, these bills are introduced because it’s timely to do so. As Australians, we should not forget that, earlier this summer, we saw the fires that destroyed suburbs in Canberra, as well as the other fires in New South Wales and Victoria. I, like so many other people, wept at the human suffering and physical decimation those fires caused. Some of those fires in those jurisdictions were deliberately or recklessly lit.

And finally, Madam Speaker, I have something of a personal interest in deterring fire bugs. My older brother is a voluntary firefighter in the CFA in Victoria, and has been for many years. He is part of an aircraft unit that air bombs highly intense fires when its too dangerous for ground crews to go in. It’s a highly skilled and dangerous job, but my brother, like thousands of others, puts his life at risk, to save people’s lives and properties and, indeed, is no different from all of the Territorians who put their lives on the line to fight fires that have been deliberately or recklessly lit.

So I introduce these bills for all of those reasons, and having regard to what I have said, I hope members on the other side of the House can appreciate how offensive it is for me to read the comments of a nameless government spokesman in the Sunday Territorian which, apart from anything else, was simply wrong. I hope that members on the other side appreciate how deeply offensive it is to me, when a member of my family, with a wife and young children, regularly and without question, voluntarily puts his life at risk to save others as a result of fires that have been deliberately or recklessly lit. And I hope members on the other side realise how deeply offensive it is to those people who lost much of their property and livelihoods, and who almost lost their homes, as a result of fires that were deliberately or recklessly lit in Central Australia last year.

And finally, Madam Speaker, I hope they appreciate how deeply offensive it is to read the whinging, whining, carping comments of a nameless, gutless individual, who speaks for a government that has been caught out and embarrassed because it has failed to act, and certainly, without a shadow of a doubt, this government has failed to act.

The fact is that the minister, on 26 November, in this House last year, called for harsher penalties. He called for, and I quote:

Harsher penalties for people who light fires.

The fact is that he guessed what the present financial penalty was at that time, and he got it wrong. The fact is, this government has not introduced any legislation, and there is nothing before this parliament. The fact is, that the community does want higher penalties, and there is broad support for the proposed higher penalties. And the fact is that it will be utterly shameful, and nothing short of disgraceful for the government to oppose these bills. I therefore commend the bills to honourable members.

Debate adjourned.

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