Labor MLA Dr Marisa Paterson will introduce a Bill to amend the Bail Act 1992, to shift the presumption of bail to a neutral presumption for three crimes: culpable driving of a motor vehicle; driving a motor vehicle at police; and furious, reckless or dangerous driving.
“These amendments are about ensuring that those people who are committing the most dangerous offences on our roads, will not be presumed bail (as they are currently),” Dr Paterson said. “By applying a neutral presumption to these crimes, the court can examine each bail application relating to these crimes on its merits.
“These three crimes will now be treated with a similar lens to sexual assault, manslaughter, and drug trafficking offences in the ACT. The ACT community is very aware after last year of the devastating impact of road trauma on our roads. People who blatantly, intentionally put the community at risk of significant harm on our roads are of high concern to our community, and [the more] we can do to keep the community safe, the better.”
The amendments complement the changes brought by the Road Safety Amendment Bill 2022, which empowers ACT police to stop dangerous driving on ACT roads.
ACT Policing’s Operation Toric highlighted very serious recidivist dangerous driving offending on our roads, Dr Paterson remarked. According to the latest figures, police apprehended 248 offenders and charged them with 596 offences between 1 August 2022 and 25 April this year. More than 40 per cent of the apprehended offenders were on bail, and another 22 per cent were under good behaviour obligations (such as a Drug Alcohol Treatment Order, Good Behaviour Order, Parole, or Intensive Correction Order).
- Recidivist offenders in ACT will be caught and taken to court (25 August 2022)
- Read more stories about Operation Toric
Concerns about high-risk dangerous driving offending were raised through the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety’s Inquiry into Dangerous Driving. (Dr Paterson is the committee’s deputy chair.) The committee, Dr Paterson stated, heard a large amount of evidence around the impacts of high risk offending that largely occurs while offenders are on bail, most often for similar dangerous driving charges. The committee recommended a neutral presumption of bail be applied to these most serious dangerous driving offences, including driving a vehicle at police.
Dr Paterson acknowledged that her measures alone would not solve the systemic problems of dangerous driving in the ACT, and urged the government to adopt the Inquiry’s other recommendations, such as more education, support, and intervention programs for high-risk offenders.
Dr Paterson remarked that keeping the community safe through tightening bail was “a balancing act with ensuring that our social, housing, health and education services and supports are reaching people most at need in our community. Reaching people before they come into contact with the criminal justice system must remain the priority.”
