Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT (BUSHFIRES) BILL 2009

Ms LAWRIE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.

The devastating Victorian bushfires in February of this year brought to the forefront of the minds of all Australians the catastrophic damage to life, property and environment that can result from bushfires. At a national level, concerns were raised about the adequacy of Australian laws dealing with bushfires and arson. Bushfires legislation was on the agenda at the recent meeting of the Standing Committee of the Attorneys-General in Canberra in April of this year.


All Australian jurisdictions have agreed, through SCAG, to continue to implement robust bushfires offences. The Northern Territory has a range of offences covering the destruction of property by fire. It also has a number of offences under the
Bushfires Act and the Fire and Emergency Act designed to prevent the occurrence of bushfires. These latter offences include restrictions on lighting fires without a permit, prohibitions on using fire during a fire ban, and conditions on lighting camp fires; however, there is no serious criminal offence dealing with the lighting of bushfires.

The bill before the Assembly seeks to emphasise the gravity of the danger that lighting bushfires represents by creating such an offence. The bill is based on a model bushfires offence which was developed in 2001 by the model Criminal Code Officers Committee. The model offence forms the basis of the bushfires offences in Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. The bill proposes to insert into the Criminal Code a new bushfires offence.


The offence applies to people who intentionally or recklessly cause a fire and who then create the risk of the spread of fire. The emphasis of the offence is on the recklessness as to the spread of a fire to vegetation; the speed at which fire can spread means that it is appropriate that people should light fires only when they are in a position to control the fire. The offence is aimed at widespread blazes. This offence is not intended to cover situations such as a campfire which, despite the person lighting it taking appropriate precautions, suddenly gets out of control by a sudden strong gale. A person in those circumstances would not be reckless according to law.


Recklessness in the context of the proposed offence means that a person is aware of the substantial risk that the fire they caused could spread to vegetation on property belonging to another person, and there is a substantial risk that they would not be able to stop the spread of the fire. It must also be unjustifiable in the circumstances to take that risk.


The bill also recognises that there are circumstances where people do create a substantial risk of fire spreading, but they have a legitimate reason for doing so; these people will not be liable under this provision. The circumstances in which people are exempted from liability reflect the land management practices in the Northern Territory and the geographical conditions here, particularly the expanses of sub-tropical savannah. These geographical conditions do not exist in the southern states of Australia. As such, persons who cause a fire for the purposes of fire management or land management are exempted from liability where the activity was done:


(a) in accordance with the law in force in the Territory; or

(b) accordance with an agreement entered into by the Territory.

For example, persons causing fires in the course of activity such as firefighting or hazard reduction operations would fall within these exemptions.


Persons acting under a commercial agreement such as the West Arnhem Fire Management Agreement, which is a greenhouse gas offset agreement between the Northern Territory government, ConocoPhillips, the Northern Land Council, and traditional owners in west Arnhem Land, would also be exempt.


Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members. I table a copy of the explanatory statement.


Debate adjourned

 


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