Committee Details

COMMITTEE’S REPORT

The committee tabled its report on Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023 on 10 March 2023.  The report is available here.

The Bill was debated in the Legislative Assembly on 14, 15 and 16 March 2023 and passed with amendments. 

Debate of the Bill in Parliament:
Transcript 14 March 2023 (pages 334-350; pages 361-388)
Transcript 15 March 2023 (pages 431-444; pages 449-482; pages 496-504)
Transcript 16 March 2023 (pages 546-552; pages 565-588)

The debate can be viewed by clicking on the movie icon within the transcripts.    

ABOUT THE BILL

On 21 February 2023 the Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services introduced the Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023 into the Queensland Parliament.   The Bill was referred to the Economics and Governance Committee for detailed consideration and report by 10 March 2023.

• View: Introductory speech
• View: Bill
• View: Explanatory Notes
• View: Statement of compatibility
• View: Statement about exceptional circumstances

Objectives of the Bill

The objective of the Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023  (the Bill) is to give effect to legislative reforms announced by the Queensland Government on 29 December 2022 aimed at keeping the community safe, and to strengthen youth justice laws to respond to serious repeat offenders. The Bill will do so by amending the Bail Act 1980, the Queensland Criminal Code, the Youth Justice Act 1992 and the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 to: 

• increase the maximum penalty for unlawful use or possession of motor vehicles, aircraft or vessels from seven to ten years imprisonment
• create new circumstances of aggravation for the offence of unlawful use or possession of motor vehicles, aircraft of vessels where:
  • the offender has published material advertising their involvement in or of the offending on social media
  • where the offending occurs at night
  • where the offender uses or threatens violence, is or pretends to be armed, is in company and damages or threatens to damage any property
• provide that it is an offence for children to breach a condition of their bail undertaking
• extend and expand the trial of electronic monitoring as a condition of bail for a further two years and to include eligible 15-year-olds
• remove the requirement that police consider alternatives to arrest if they reasonable suspect a child on bail for a prescribed indictable offence or certain domestic violence offences has contravened or is contravening a bail condition
• provide that a child’s bail history must be taken into account during sentencing
• create the ability of a sentencing court to declare3 that a child offender is a serious repeat offender in certain circumstances to enable considerations such as community safety to be paramount
• enable conditional release orders to operate for a greater period of time
• ensure certain child offenders serve their suspended term of detention if they breach their conditional release orders
• expand the list of offences included within the definition of ‘prescribed indictable offence’ to facilitate greater operation of provisions of the Youth Justice Act 1992 aimed at serious repeat offenders, including the presumption against bail provision under section 48AF and the new sentencing regime for children declared serious repeat offenders
• enabling the transfer of persons who have turned 18 years on remand and the earlier transfer persons who have turned 18 years serving a sentence from youth detention centres to adult correctional centres
• ensure the continuation of multi-agency collaborative panels which provide intensive case management and holistic support for young persons identified as high risk or requiring a collaborative response through a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approach.

Call for submissions

Submissions have now closed.

PUBLIC BRIEFING

A public briefing was held on Monday, 27 February 2023 at 10:30am in Dandiir Room, 5th floor, Parliamentary Annexe, Alice Street, Brisbane.

PUBLIC hearing

Public hearings were held in South East Queensland on Tuesday 28 February 2023, Cairns on Wednesday 1 March 2023 and Townsville on Thursday 2 March 2023. 

The live broadcast of these proceedings can be accessed here.    

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