Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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CRIMINAL RECORDS (SPENT CONVICTIONS) AMENDMENT BILL 2002

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

The purpose of this bill is to amend the Criminal Records (Spent Convictions) Act to provide for a person who is found guilty of an offence as a 17 year old to be able to be treated as a juvenile for the purposes of the act regardless of when the finding of guilt was imposed. Until June 2000 a juvenile for the purposes of criminal procedure was a person who had not attained the age of 17 years. This meant that people who committed offences when they were 17 years old were all tried and sentenced as adults. The former Territory government was criticised both nationally and internationally for treating 17 year olds as adults and there were suggestions that this policy was inconsistent with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On 1 June 2000, the Sentencing of Juveniles (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2000 came into operation. This act amended a number of acts to provide that persons who had attained the age of 17 years but were under 18 years were to be treated as juveniles as a matter of criminal procedure. Amendments were made to a range of Northern Territory acts by the Sentencing of Juveniles (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act. However, the complementary changes were not made to the Criminal Records (Spent Convictions) Act. This resulted in an anomaly and potential unfairness for juveniles who were previously sentenced as adults for offences committed when they were 17 year olds.

The Criminal Record (Spent Convictions) Act provides that in certain circumstances a person’s criminal record relating to relatively minor offences may be spent and not form part of the person’s criminal history. However, there are some convictions that will never be spent. These relate to cases of sexual offences, offences committed by the body corporate or where a person received a sentence of more than six months imprisonment regardless of whether the sentence was suspended. Under the Criminal Record (Spent Convictions) Act convictions that are capable of being spent become spent when the offender has completed the applicable crime free period. For juveniles the period is five years and for adults the period is 10 years. This means that a person who had committed offences at 17 years of age prior to the 2000 amendments cannot have their convictions spent for at least 10 years.
This is particularly unfair to those persons who were convicted of offences they committed under the previous mandatory sentencing regime for property offences. As they were sentenced as adults their criminal records were not spent for 10 years, which is serious ramifications upon them when they are seeking, and being eligible for, certain types of employment and travel.

This amendment seeks to rectify the present anomaly in the Criminal Records (Spent Convictions) Act so that a person who committed an offence as a 17 year old but who was sentenced other than in the juvenile court can apply to the Commissioner of Police to have his or her criminal record spent at the expiry of the five year ‘crime free’ period. This will be granted as a matter of course as long as the person satisfies the requirement of the act. For example, the person must not have committed any subsequent offences punishable by imprisonment and the original conviction was not one that can never be spent, such as a sexual offence.

Northern Territory police have assured me that all applications for approval to release a criminal history will inform the person of their right to apply under these changes. The applications will be made widely available and will be simple to make. While we cannot go back and change the sentences that many juveniles had to serve under the previous mandatory sentencing regime for adult property offenders, we can at least ensure that the implications of these offences on their futures is not unnecessarily harsh.

Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members.

Debate adjourned.

 

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