South Australian Current Acts South Australian Current Acts20AA—Causing harm to, or assaulting, certain emergency workers etc
(1) A person who
causes harm to a prescribed emergency worker acting in the course of official
duties, intending to cause harm, is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 15 years.
(2) A person who
causes harm to a prescribed emergency worker acting in the course of official
duties, and is reckless in doing so, is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.
(3) A person who
assaults a prescribed emergency worker acting in the course of official duties
is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 5 years.
(4) A person who
hinders or resists a police officer acting in the course of official duties,
and, in so doing, causes harm to the officer, is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.
(5) In proceedings for
an offence against this section, it is a defence for the defendant to prove
that the defendant did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected
to know, that the victim was a prescribed emergency worker, or police officer,
(as the case requires) acting in the course of official duties.
(6) Without limiting
the ways in which a person can cause harm to a prescribed emergency worker,
harm can be caused (but will not be taken to be caused) by causing
human biological material to come into contact with a
prescribed emergency worker.
(7) For the purposes
of this section, a person causes human biological material to come into
contact with a victim if the person performs any act (including, without
limiting the generality of this subsection, by spitting or throwing
human biological material at the victim, or deliberately applying human
biological material to their person knowing that the victim is likely to come
into physical contact with the person in the course of their duties) intended
or likely to cause human biological material to come into contact with the
victim.
(8) This section does
not apply to conduct occurring before the commencement of this section.
(9) In this
section—
"assault" means an assault within the meaning of section 20(1) and
includes, to avoid doubt, an act consisting of intentionally causing
human biological material to come into contact with a victim, or threatening
to do so;
"harm" has the same meaning as in Division 7A;
"human biological material" means—
(a)
blood, saliva, semen, faeces, urine or vomit; or
(b) any
other material prescribed by the regulations;
"pharmacy" has the same meaning as in Part 4 of the Health Practitioner
Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010 ;
"pharmacy services" has the same meaning as in Part 4 of the Health
Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010 ;
"prescribed emergency worker" means—
(a) a
police officer; or
(b) a
prison officer; or
(c) a
community corrections officer or community youth justice officer; or
(d) an
employee in a training centre (within the meaning of the Youth Justice
Administration Act 2016 ); or
(e) a
person (whether a health practitioner, nurse, nurse practitioner, midwife,
security officer or otherwise) performing duties in a hospital, or at any
other place where medical treatment is provided or medical testing undertaken
(however described, but including, without limiting this paragraph, a general
practice, medical centre or other place at which people are vaccinated or
screened for diseases); or
(f) a
person (whether a medical practitioner, nurse, pilot or otherwise) performing
duties in the course of retrieval medicine; or
(g) a
medical practitioner or other health practitioner (both within the meaning of
the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) ) attending
an out of hours or unscheduled callout, or assessing, stabilising or treating
a person at the scene of an accident or other emergency, in a rural area; or
(ga) a
person (whether a pharmacist, pharmacy assistant or otherwise) performing
duties in a pharmacy; or
(gb) a
person providing pharmacy services at a place other than a pharmacy, or a
person assisting in the provision of such services; or
(h) a
member of the SA Ambulance Service Inc; or
(i)
a member of SAMFS, SACFS or SASES; or
(j) a
law enforcement officer; or
(k) an
inspector within the meaning of the Animal Welfare Act 1985 ; or
(l) any
other person engaged in an occupation or employment prescribed by the
regulations for the purposes of section 5AA(1)(ka); or
(m) any
other person prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this paragraph,
whether acting in a paid or voluntary capacity, but does not include a person,
or person of a class, declared by the regulations to be excluded from the
ambit of this definition;
"recklessly"—a person is reckless in causing harm to another if the
person—
(a) is
aware of a substantial risk that his or her conduct could result in harm or
serious harm (as the case requires); and
(b)
engages in the conduct despite the risk and without adequate justification;
"retrieval medicine" means the assessment, stabilisation and transportation to
hospital of patients with severe injury or critical illness (other than by a
member of SA Ambulance Service Inc);
"rural area" means an area outside of Metropolitan Adelaide as defined by
GRO Plan 639/93.