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| Ms LAWRIE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time. The Penalties Amendment (Chief Minister’s and Other Portfolios) Bill 2010 continues the process of converting penalties in all NT legislation from dollar amounts to penalties units. The Justice Legislation Amendment (Penalties) Act 2010 and Penalties Amendment (Justice and Treasury Legislation) Act 2010 have converted most of the penalties in the Department of Justice and Treasury legislation. The purpose of this bill is to amend penalty provisions in the acts administered by the Department of the Chief Minister and NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services. The Justice Legislation Amendment (Penalties) Act 2010 and Penalties Amendment (Justice and Treasury Legislation) Act 2010 provided for penalty increases of no more than 15%. This bill maintains that principle. As was the case for the Penalties Amendment (Justice and Treasury Legislation) Act 2010, the conversion factors are based on a penalty unit value of $133 rather than $130, as the value of the penalty unit increased on 1 July this year in accordance with a formula in the Penalty Units Act 2009 and based on the Darwin CPI. For penalties of a significant size, the conversion process is: � current monetary penalty is increased by 15%; and � this amount is converted into the nearest whole number of penalty units. The outcome is then rounded down to the nearest five penalty units. Where the rounding down to the nearest five penalty units would result in an actual decrease in the penalty, the following principles were applied: � first, the penalty was rounded down to the nearest whole penalty unit that was closest to, but not more than, the 15% increase value. Thus, for example, the current penalty of $2000 increased by 15% to $2300 becomes 17 penalty units, $2261. See, for example, section 35 of the Referendums Act; and � second, where the penalty rounded to the nearest 0.5 of a penalty unit would result in an actual decrease in penalty, the penalty was rounded to the nearest one-tenth of a penalty unit, but greater than 0.5 of a penalty unit. Thus, for example, the current penalty of $200 increased by 15%, $230, becomes 1.7 of a penalty unit, $226 10. See, for example, section 47(9) of the Referendums Act. Amendments have not been made to amend any act that is either proposed to be repealed or amended in some other way. The Telecommunications (Interception) Northern Territory Act; Inquiries Act; Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Registration) Act; AustralAsia Railway Corporation Act; AustralAsia Railway (Special Provisions) Act; AustralAsia Railway (Third Party Access) Act; Fire and Emergency Act; Fire and Emergency Regulations; and, the Weapons Control Regulations are not amended by this bill because other bills intend to amend, may amend, or have amended, the penalties in those legislative instruments. The bill provides for the conversion of seven Department of Chief Minister acts and four NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services acts. The balance of all remaining NT acts is expected to be reviewed by mid-2011. Again, I note that this approach in bringing in penalty units does not solve all penalty-related issues. For example, it does not fix differentials across the statutory book concerning like offences. Differences in specific offences will be individually reviewed. Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members, and I table a copy of the explanatory statement. Debate adjourned. |