HISTORICAL HOMOSEXUAL CONVICTIONS EXPUNGEMENT BILL 2017

Committee

Resumed from 22 August. The Deputy Chair of Committees (Hon Dr Steve Thomas) in the chair; Hon Sue Ellery (Leader of the House) in charge of the bill.

Clause 11: Determination of application —

Progress was reported after the clause had been partly considered.

[Speeches and comments from various members]

Clause put and passed.

Clause 12: Determination that conviction is no longer expunged —

[Speeches and comments from various members]

Clause put and passed.

Clauses 13 and 14 put and passed.

Clause 15: Disclosure of expunged records —

Hon MICHAEL MISCHIN: Clause 15 proposes, amongst other things, an offence. Subclause (1) provides that —

A person with access to official criminal records —

That is the sort of material we have been discussing —

must not directly or indirectly, without lawful authority, disclose any information about another person’s expunged conviction held in those records without the consent of that other person.

[Speeches and comments from various members]

Clause put and passed.

Clauses 16 to 22 put and passed.

Clause 23: Confidentiality —

Hon MICHAEL MISCHIN: Clause 23 is one of the important confidentiality provisions in the proposed act. Subclause 1 provides —

A person must not, directly or indirectly, record, disclose or make use of any information obtained by reason of a function that the person has, or at any time had, in the administration of this Act except —

(a)  for the purpose of, or in connection with, performing a function under this Act; or

(b)  as required or allowed by this Act or under another written law; or

(c)  for the purposes of proceedings before a court or other person or body acting judicially; or

(d)  under an order of a court or other person or body acting judicially; or

(e)  with the written consent of the person to whom the information relates; or

(f)  in other circumstances prescribed for this subsection.

[Speeches and comments from various members]

Clause put and passed.

Clauses 24 to 29 put and passed.

New clause 29A —

Hon SUE ELLERY: I move —

Page 23, after line 15 — To insert —

29A. Annual Report

(1)  The CEO must prepare and submit to the Minister, not later than 30September in each year, a report for the previous financial year that contains details of the following —

(a)  the number of applications made under section 5;

(b)  for applications determined under section 11 —

(i)  the number of applications approved under section 11(2);

(ii)  the number of applications refused under section 11(2) and a summary of the grounds for refusal;

(iii)  the number of convictions expunged under section 11(3) and a summary of the offences to which the expunged convictions relate;

(iv)  the average amount of time taken to determine an application;

(c)  the number of determinations that a conviction is no longer an expunged conviction under section 12(1) and a summary of the grounds for the determinations;

(d)  the number of review applications made to the State Administrative Tribunal under section 18 and the outcomes of such applications, if available;

(e)  any other matters that are, in the CEO’s opinion, of such significance as to require reporting.

(2)  The Minister must cause a copy of the annual report to be laid before each House of Parliament within 14 sitting days after the report is received by the Minister.

[Speeches and comments from various members]

Hon ALISON XAMON: I rise to indicate that I appreciate the explanation about why “grounds” has been changed from “reasons” in the proposed new clause. I am also pleased that the extent of what needs to be reported has been accepted. I think it is important that with such significant legislative reform it is ensured that there is extensive statutory reporting so people can feel confident that the new regime is transparent.

New clause put and passed.

Hon MICHAEL MISCHIN: That being so, I do not propose to move the new clause in my name standing at 71/NC29.

New clause 29B —

Hon SUE ELLERY: I move —

Page 23, after line 15 — To insert —

29B. Review of Act

(1)  The Minister must review the operation and effectiveness of this Act, and prepare a report based on the review, as soon as practicable after the 5th anniversary of the day on which this section comes into operation.

(2)  The Minister must cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as practicable after it is prepared, but not later than 12 months after the 5th anniversary.

[Speeches and comments from various members]

Hon SUE ELLERY: I do not necessarily accept the argument that the honourable member put that his clause 29B(2)(c)—“any other matters that appear to the Minister to be relevant to the operation and effectiveness of this Act”—is not, in fact, captured by the first line of the government’s clause 29B(1), which states —

The Minister must review the operation and effectiveness of this Act, ...

That can include any other matter that appears to the minister to be relevant to the operation and effectiveness of this legislation, which is what is set out in the honourable member’s 29B(2)(c). I think it is captured and I think it is a broader set of words that captures all the things that are set out in the member’s paragraphs (b) and (c), and for the reasons already outlined, I urge the chamber to support the government’s version of the review.

Division

New clause put and a division taken, the Deputy Chair (Hon Martin Aldridge) casting his vote with the noes, with the following result —

Ayes (17)

Noes (14)

New clause thus passed.

Leave granted for clauses 30 and 31 to be considered together.

Clauses 30 and 31 —

 [Comments from Hon MICHAEL MISCHIN]

Clauses put and passed.

Schedule 1 put and passed.

Title put and passed.

Report

Bill reported, with amendments, and, by leave, the report adopted.

As to Third Reading — Standing Orders Suspension — Motion

On motion without notice by Hon Sue Ellery (Leader of the House), resolved with an absolute majority —

That so much of standing orders be suspended so as to enable the bill to be read a third time forthwith.

Third Reading

HON SUE ELLERY (South Metropolitan — Leader of the House) [3.37 pm]: I move —

That the bill be now read a third time.

HON ALISON XAMON (North Metropolitan) [3.38 pm]: I rise to make a few comments about the process. I appreciate Hon Michael Mischin including in his amendments a review clause in the Historical Homosexual Convictions Expungement Bill 2017 as well as a requirement for annual reporting. I think this is a really important piece of legislation and, as such, it is really important that we keep track of what is happening with bills such as this. I appreciate the fact that the government has tweaked those proposed amendments. I believe we now have a better bill in front of us.

I want to make the observation that a number of bills repeatedly come to this house that require amendment for the inclusion of review clauses as well as annual reporting or other such reporting measures. I wanted to put on the record for all ministers who are thinking of bringing legislation to this place that it would be terribly useful if that was an automatic provision within all future legislation brought to this place where appropriate, particularly when we are talking about a new piece of legislation that automatically includes review clauses of the legislation itself as well as annual reporting. Otherwise, we will constantly need to seek these sorts of amendments, which means that legislation will consistently need to be amended and go back to the other place.

Question put and passed.
Bill read a third time and returned to the Assembly with amendments.

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