Assaults on Emergency Service Workers Final Report No.2
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ASSAULTS ON EMERGENCY SERVICE WORKERS FINAL REPORT NO. 2 March 2013 About This Final Advice This report makes recommendations to the Attorney-General in relation to the issue of assault on emergency service workers in Tasmania. This report was one of the initial referrals to the Sentencing Advisory Council at its inception in June 2010. The publication of this report follows the release of a Consultation Paper in June 2012. The purpose of the Consultation Paper was to assist in the discussion about the Consultation capacity of Tasmania’s sentencing Responses to the structure to deal with the Consultation Paper were sentencing of persons found received from: guilty of assaults on emergency service workers in Tasmania. • Mr D L Hine, Secretary, The Consultation Paper Department of Police and reviewed the current Tasmanian Emergency Management, provisions applying to assaults Tasmania on emergency service workers • Mr G Freeman, Acting Information on Acknowledgments and the various measures taken Chief Officer,Tasmania Fire the Sentencing This Final Advice was in other jurisdictions in Australia Service Advisory Council written by Ms Lisa Gregg. and overseas. It considered • Mr A Lea, Director, State The Council would like the sentencing practices Emergency Service, The Sentencing Advisory to thank the Victorian for offenders who assault Department of Police and Council was established Sentencing Advisory emergency service workers and Emergency Management, in June 2010 by the then Council, especially reviewed the nature and extent Tasmania Attorney-General and Dr Catherine Jeffreys, for of assaults in Tasmania. The • Mr D Morgan, Chief Minister for Justice, the assistance with copyediting Consultation Paper posed seven Executive Officer, Hon Lara Giddings MP. The and typesetting. questions, including: Ambulance Tasmania, Council was established, in • who should be included Department of Health and part, as an advisory body in the definition of an Human Services, Tasmania to the Attorney-General. emergency service worker • Mr T Ellis SC, Director Its other functions are to bridge the gap between the • the adequacy of the existing of Public Prosecutions, community, the courts and laws and sentencing practices Tasmania the Government by informing, in Tasmania • Mr L Rheinberger, Deputy educating and advising on Executive Director, the • a proposal for additional sentencing issues in Tasmania. Law Society of Tasmania penalties within the existing At the time this reference penalty ranges • Mr B Bartl, Policy Officer, was concluded, the Council • a proposal for an aggravation Tasmanian Association of members were Mr Peter Tree provision into the sentencing Community Legal Centres SC (Chair), Professor Kate legislation • Mr G Katos, community Warner, Dr Jeremy Prichard, • mandatory fines, penalties member, Tasmania Mr Phil Wilkinson, Ms Kim and sentences of • Confidential submission, Baumeler, Mr Norman imprisonment for assaults on community member, Reaburn, Mr Chris Gunson emergency service workers. Tasmania. and Mr Tony Jacobs. ISBN: 978-0-9873492-4-8 (print) ISBN: 978-0-9873492-5-5 (ebook) Copyright © State of Tasmania – Department of Justice, 2013. This work is copyright; however, material from this publication may be copied and published by state or federal government agencies without permission of the Department on the condition that the meaning of the material is not altered and the Tasmanian Department of Justice is acknowledged as the source of the material. Any other persons or bodies wishing to use material from this publication must seek permission. Contents About This Final Advice ii Consultation ii Information on the Sentencing Advisory Council ii Acknowledgments ii Abbreviations iv Executive Summary v List of Recommendations vii Questions Posed in the Consultation Paper viii 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Terms of Reference 1 1.2 Background 1 1.3 Outline of the Final Advice 2 1.4 The Definition of Emergency Service Worker 2 2. Provisions for Assaults on Emergency Service Workers in Tasmania 3 2.1 Tasmanian Criminal Law 3 2.2 Legislation Relating to Assaults on Police Officers 3 2.3 Legislation Relating to Other Workplace Assaults 4 3. Provisions for Workplace Assaults in Other Jurisdictions in Australia and Overseas 6 3.1 Introduction 6 3.2 Specific Offence Provisions 6 3.3 Penalty Enhancement Provisions 10 3.4 Sentence Aggravation Provisions 12 3.5 Mandatory Minimum Sentences 12 4. Sentencing in Tasmania 15 4.1 The Power to Impose Sentence 15 4.2 Sentences for Assaulting Police Officers 16 4.3 Sentences for Other Workplace Assaults 21 5. The Need for Reform 23 5.1 Introduction 23 5.2 Part A – Assaults on Police Officers 23 5.3 Part B – Assaults on Emergency Service Workers 31 6. Options for Reform 35 6.1 The Definition of an Emergency Service Worker 35 6.2 Option 1 – No Change 37 6.3 Option 2 – A New Criminal Provision 41 6.4 Option 3 – Penalty Enhancement Provisions and Graduation of Penalties 43 6.5 Option 4 – Sentence Aggravation Provisions 48 6.6 Option 5 – Mandatory Minimum Penalties and Sentences 50 Appendix 57 Assault Police Officer – Mandatory Sentencing 57 References 59 Contents iii Abbreviations ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics ANZSCO Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations DPEM Department of Police and Emergency Management DPP Director of Public Prosecutions POA Police Offences Act 1935 (Tas) SES State Emergency Service TACLC Tasmanian Association of Community Legal Centres TFS Tasmania Fire Service VCS Victims of Crime Service VSS Victims Support Services iv Assaults on Emergency Service Workers – Final Report No. 2 Executive Summary One of the inaugural referrals to the Sentencing A brief summary of the most relevant findings in the Advisory Council (the Council) from the Attorney- Consultation Paper is as follows: General was a request to provide advice in relation to • Despite provisions in other jurisdictions in Australia, assaults on emergency service workers in Tasmania. The there are no specific provisions in the offence request for this advice was prompted by ongoing calls structure or in the sentencing structure for assaults for mandatory terms of imprisonment for offenders on emergency service workers in Tasmania. who assault emergency service workers. The calls relate • Without any legislative provisions directing it to to a perceived increase in the incidence and severity of do so, when sentencing a person for an assault the assaults on emergency service workers and a perceived Supreme Court considers it an aggravating factor if leniency in the sentences imposed on those who the victim was at his or her workplace at the time commit the assaults. of the offence. Research by the Drug and Crime Prevention • Available data from the Magistrates Court indicates Committee of the Parliament of Victoria notes that that a person who assaults a police officer will ‘media reporting tends to sensationalise the issue be more likely to receive an immediate prison of violent crime, generating fear among the general sentence, but the length of imprisonment will be population that does not match the actual level of no longer than if the person had been charged risk faced’.1 with common assault. • There are very few serious assaults on emergency The Council considered it was important that part service workers in Tasmania. of the research in the Consultation Paper should • In the last five years, there has been no significant assess the actual level of risk to emergency service increase in assaults on police officers in Tasmania. workers. It also considered that reform to the penalty provisions or the sentencing structure for any assaults The final chapter in the Consultation Paper, ‘Options for on emergency service workers enacted for the purpose Reform’, posed seven questions regarding the suitability, of general deterrence should be consistent with the or otherwise, of the sentencing structure for assaults on actual level of risk encountered in this State. It was also emergency workers in Tasmania. The Council invited considered necessary to address the issue of perceived responses from Government, independent agencies, the leniency in the sentences imposed on offenders who judiciary and the community to assist in the Final Advice assault emergency service workers. The June 2012 to the Attorney-General. Consultation Paper into this referral addressed the current Tasmanian provisions, the provisions in other The Council derived its final recommendations jurisdictions, the sentencing practices for assaults on from the evidence in the Consultation Paper, the emergency service workers and the actual number of submissions received and further research and workplace assaults on all members of the community. consultation resulting from the submissions. 1 Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Inquiry into Strategies to Reduce Assaults in Public Places in Victoria: Final Report (DCPC, Parliament of Victoria, 2010) 1<http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/ dcpc/assaults/Final_assault_report.pdf>. Executive Summary v The Consultation Paper indicated very few serious are not strictly double the sentence for a common assaults on emergency service workers in Tasmania assault, the Magistrates Court in Tasmania does treat and no significant increase in assaults on police officers assaults on police more seriously than common assaults. over time. The 2010–2011 annual figures for assaults Notwithstanding, the Council has recommended on police officers, finalised