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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
Queensland
Criminal Law (Domestic
Violence) Amendment
Bill 2015
Queensland
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence)
Amendment Bill 2015
Contents
Page
Part 1 Preliminary
1 Short title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Part 2 Amendment of Criminal Code
2 Act amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Amendment of s 1 (Definitions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4 Amendment of s 564 (Form of indictment) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5 Amendment of s 572 (Amendment of indictments) . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Part 3 Amendment of Domestic and Family Violence Protection
Act 2012
6 Act amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7 Amendment of s 177 (Contravention of domestic violence order) 6
8 Replacement of s 181 (Prosecution of offences) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
181 Prosecution of offences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9 Amendment of s 182 (When proceeding for offence may start) . . 8
Part 4 Amendment of Evidence Act 1977
10 Act amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
11 Amendment of s 21A (Evidence of special witnesses). . . . . . . . . 8
Part 5 Amendment of Justices Act 1886
12 Act amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
13 Amendment of s 4 (Definitions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
14 Amendment of s 47 (What is sufficient description of offence). . . 9
15 Amendment of s 48 (Amendment of complaint) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Part 6 Amendment of Penalties and Sentences Act 1992
16 Act amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
17 Amendment of s 4 (Definitions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
18 Insertion of new s 12A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Contents
12A Convictions for domestic violence offences . . . . . . . . 11
19 Amendment of s 196 (Regulation-making power) . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Page 2
2015
A Bill
for
An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Domestic and Family
Violence Protection Act 2012, the Evidence Act 1977, the
Justices Act 1886 and the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 to
implement a number of criminal law reforms recommended by
the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence in
Queensland
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 1 Preliminary
[s 1]
The Parliament of Queensland enacts-- 1
Part 1 Preliminary 2
Clause 1 Short title 3
This Act may be cited as the Criminal Law (Domestic 4
Violence) Amendment Act 2015. 5
Part 2 Amendment of Criminal Code 6
Clause 2 Act amended 7
This part amends the Criminal Code. 8
Clause 3 Amendment of s 1 (Definitions) 9
Section 1-- 10
insert-- 11
domestic violence offence means an offence 12
against an Act, other than the Domestic and 13
Family Violence Protection Act 2012, committed 14
by a person where the act done, or omission 15
made, which constitutes the offence is also-- 16
(a) domestic violence or associated domestic 17
violence, under the Domestic and Family 18
Violence Protection Act 2012, committed by 19
the person; or 20
(b) a contravention of the Domestic and Family 21
Violence Protection Act 2012, section 22
177(2). 23
Page 4
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 2 Amendment of Criminal Code
[s 4]
Note-- 1
Under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2
2012, section 177(2), a respondent against whom a 3
domestic violence order has been made under that Act 4
must not contravene the order. 5
Clause 4 Amendment of s 564 (Form of indictment) 6
Section 564-- 7
insert-- 8
(3A) An indictment for an offence may also state the 9
offence is a domestic violence offence. 10
Note-- 11
Under the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, section 12
12A, if a person is convicted of an offence that the court 13
is satisfied is also a domestic violence offence, the court 14
must order the conviction also be recorded as being for a 15
domestic violence offence or, if no conviction is 16
recorded, entered in the person's criminal history as a 17
domestic violence offence. 18
Clause 5 Amendment of s 572 (Amendment of indictments) 19
Section 572-- 20
insert-- 21
(1A) Without limiting subsection (1), if the court 22
considers the offence charged in the indictment is 23
also a domestic violence offence, the court may 24
order that the indictment be amended to state the 25
offence is also a domestic violence offence. 26
Page 5
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 3 Amendment of Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012
[s 6]
Part 3 Amendment of Domestic and 1
Family Violence Protection Act 2
2012 3
Clause 6 Act amended 4
This part amends the Domestic and Family Violence 5
Protection Act 2012. 6
Clause 7 Amendment of s 177 (Contravention of domestic violence 7
order) 8
(1) Section 177(2), penalty-- 9
omit, insert-- 10
Maximum penalty-- 11
(a) if, within 5 years before the commission of 12
an offence against this subsection, the 13
respondent has been previously convicted of 14
a domestic violence offence--240 penalty 15
units or 5 years imprisonment; or 16
(b) otherwise--120 penalty units or 3 years 17
imprisonment. 18
(2) Section 177-- 19
insert-- 20
(7) In this section-- 21
domestic violence offence means-- 22
(a) a domestic violence offence within the 23
meaning of the Criminal Code, section 1; 24
and 25
(b) an offence under this part. 26
Clause 8 Replacement of s 181 (Prosecution of offences) 27
Section 181-- 28
Page 6
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 3 Amendment of Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012
[s 8]
omit, insert-- 1
181 Prosecution of offences 2
(1) This section applies to offences against this Act. 3
(2) An offence that has a maximum penalty of more 4
than 3 years imprisonment is an indictable 5
offence. 6
(3) A proceeding for an offence that is not an 7
indictable offence is by way of summary 8
proceedings under the Justices Act 1886. 9
(4) Subject to subsection (6), a proceeding on a 10
charge for an indictable offence must be heard 11
and decided summarily. 12
(5) The maximum term of imprisonment that may be 13
imposed on a summary conviction of an 14
indictable offence is 3 years imprisonment. 15
(6) A Magistrates Court must abstain from dealing 16
summarily with a charge for an indictable 17
offence-- 18
(a) if satisfied, at any stage, and after hearing 19
any submissions by the prosecution and 20
defence, that because of the nature or 21
seriousness of the offence or any other 22
relevant consideration the defendant, if 23
convicted, may not be adequately punished 24
on summary conviction; or 25
(b) if satisfied, on an application made by the 26
defence, that because of exceptional 27
circumstances the charge should not be 28
heard and decided summarily. 29
(7) If the court abstains from jurisdiction-- 30
(a) the court must stop treating the proceeding 31
as a proceeding to hear and decide the 32
charge summarily; and 33
Page 7
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 4 Amendment of Evidence Act 1977
[s 9]
(b) the proceeding for the charge must be 1
conducted as a committal proceeding; and 2
(c) the defendant's plea at the start of the 3
hearing must be disregarded; and 4
(d) the evidence already heard by the court must 5
be taken to be evidence in the committal 6
proceeding. 7
(8) The Justices Act 1886, section 104 must be 8
complied with for the committal proceeding. 9
Clause 9 Amendment of s 182 (When proceeding for offence may 10
start) 11
(1) Section 182, heading, 'may start'-- 12
omit, insert-- 13
to be heard summarily may be started 14
(2) Section 182, after 'this Act'-- 15
insert-- 16
that is to be heard in a summary way under the 17
Justices Act 1886 18
Part 4 Amendment of Evidence Act 19
1977 20
Clause 10 Act amended 21
This part amends the Evidence Act 1977. 22
Clause 11 Amendment of s 21A (Evidence of special witnesses) 23
(1) Section 21A(1)-- 24
insert-- 25
Page 8
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 5 Amendment of Justices Act 1886
[s 12]
domestic violence see the Domestic and Family 1
Violence Protection Act 2012, section 8. 2
(2) Section 21A(1), definition special witness-- 3
insert-- 4
(d) a person-- 5
(i) against whom domestic violence has 6
been or is alleged to have been 7
committed by another person; and 8
(ii) who is to give evidence about the 9
commission of an offence by the other 10
person. 11
Part 5 Amendment of Justices Act 12
1886 13
Clause 12 Act amended 14
This part amends the Justices Act 1886. 15
Clause 13 Amendment of s 4 (Definitions) 16
Section 4-- 17
insert-- 18
domestic violence offence see the Criminal 19
Code, section 1. 20
Clause 14 Amendment of s 47 (What is sufficient description of 21
offence) 22
Section 47-- 23
insert-- 24
Page 9
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 6 Amendment of Penalties and Sentences Act 1992
[s 15]
(9) A complaint for an offence may state the offence 1
is also a domestic violence offence. 2
Note-- 3
Under the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, section 4
12A, if a person is convicted of an offence that the court 5
is satisfied is also a domestic violence offence, the court 6
must order the conviction also be recorded as being for a 7
domestic violence offence or, if no conviction is 8
recorded, entered in the person's criminal history as a 9
domestic violence offence. 10
Clause 15 Amendment of s 48 (Amendment of complaint) 11
Section 48-- 12
insert-- 13
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), if the justices 14
consider the offence charged in the complaint is 15
also a domestic violence offence but the 16
complaint does not include a statement to that 17
effect, the court may order that the complaint be 18
amended to state the offence is also a domestic 19
violence offence. 20
Part 6 Amendment of Penalties and 21
Sentences Act 1992 22
Clause 16 Act amended 23
This part amends the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992. 24
Clause 17 Amendment of s 4 (Definitions) 25
(1) Section 4-- 26
insert-- 27
Page 10
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 6 Amendment of Penalties and Sentences Act 1992
[s 18]
domestic violence offence see the Criminal 1
Code, section 1. 2
(2) Section 4, definition prosecutor, before 'parts 3A'-- 3
insert-- 4
section 12A and 5
Clause 18 Insertion of new s 12A 6
After section 12-- 7
insert-- 8
12A Convictions for domestic violence offences 9
(1) This section applies if-- 10
(a) a complaint or an indictment for a charge for 11
an offence states the offence is also a 12
domestic violence offence; and 13
(b) in convicting the offender of the offence, a 14
court is satisfied it is also a domestic 15
violence offence. 16
(2) The court must order-- 17
(a) for an offence for which a conviction is 18
recorded--that the conviction also be 19
recorded as a conviction for a domestic 20
violence offence; or 21
(b) otherwise--that the offence be entered in the 22
offender's criminal history as a domestic 23
violence offence. 24
(3) If the court makes an order under subsection (2), 25
the prosecution may apply to the court for an 26
order that an offence, stated in the application, of 27
which the offender has previously been convicted 28
(a previous offence)-- 29
(a) for a previous offence for which a 30
conviction was recorded--also be recorded 31
Page 11
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 6 Amendment of Penalties and Sentences Act 1992
[s 18]
as a conviction for a domestic violence 1
offence; or 2
(b) otherwise--be entered in the offender's 3
criminal history as a domestic violence 4
offence. 5
(4) The application-- 6
(a) may be made in writing or orally; and 7
(b) must include enough information to allow 8
the court to make a decision about whether 9
it is appropriate to make the order. 10
(5) The court may ask the prosecutor for further 11
information for it to decide whether to make an 12
order under subsection (6). 13
(6) If, after considering the application, the court is 14
satisfied a previous offence is a domestic 15
violence offence, the court must order that the 16
offence-- 17
(a) for a previous offence for which a 18
conviction was recorded--also be recorded 19
as a conviction for a domestic violence 20
offence; or 21
(b) otherwise--be entered in the offender's 22
criminal history as a domestic violence 23
offence. 24
(7) A person against whom the domestic violence 25
offence was committed is not compellable as a 26
witness in proceedings before the court to decide 27
the application. 28
(8) If a court is satisfied an error has been made in 29
recording or entering an offence as a domestic 30
violence offence, the court may, on an application 31
or its own initiative, correct the error. 32
Page 12
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
Part 6 Amendment of Penalties and Sentences Act 1992
[s 19]
Clause 19 Amendment of s 196 (Regulation-making power) 1
Section 196-- 2
insert-- 3
(2) A regulation may prescribe matters relating to the 4
recording of convictions for domestic violence 5
offences, or the making of entries in criminal 6
histories about domestic violence offences, 7
including, for example, the way in which, and 8
time within which, the records or entries are to be 9
made. 10
© State of Queensland 2015
Authorised by the Parliamentary Counsel
Page 13
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