Sabin Mike: Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSabin Mike: Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 25 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18922. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MIKE SABIN (National—Northland):I am very pleased to take a call on clause 3 of the Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill to talk about what really is the bread and butter of front-line police officers’ work and that is the Summary Offences Act. This bill amends the Summary Offences Act 1981—Alfred Ngaro: Were you a policeman?MIKE SABIN: Yes I was a policeman. It is a fact less often known but I am happy to get it on the table for this particular purpose to help elucidate the importance of the Summary Offences Act 1981 which received Royal assent on 23 October 1981. The Summary Offences Act typically contains—Mr Calder did allude to some of them—offences that we would constitute as being at the minor end of the scale. They are what you could often refer to as the rats and mice type of offences. The penalties are commensurate. Is that the word Mr Calder? You are a scholar.Dr Cam Calder: Oh an excellent word!MIKE SABIN: Thank you. I learnt that one at Police College. They are commensurate—commensurate—with the offences.If we look at the detail in terms of the Summary Offences Act and the framework that it is set in first and foremost a summary offence is an offence that is trialled by judge only so there is no option for a jury trial. A jury trial matter would be something that is an indictable matter. A purely indictable matter is a high-end High Court matter if you like and receives penalties that have the most significant consequences. Summary offences deal with the lower end and they are a judge-only matter.The second point to note is the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations refers to the time between the offence and the offender being placed before the court and charged. For summary offences it is 6 months. When we talk about amending the Summary Offences Act what we are discussing is amending a piece of legislation that typically deals with lower-end offences where the penalties are of less consequence where we are dealing with a judge-only trial and where we have a statute of limitations of 6 months.The other interesting point to note is that those who are arrested for matters in the Summary Offences Act typically do not have to provide their fingerprints which is a fact lesser known and they are bailable as of right. Typically they will be in a position where they can receive police bail to go about their lives and be summonsed to court at the next sitting day generally speaking if they have been charged and processed through a police station. That gives the context of the Summary Offences Act 1981 and gives us a sense of—[Interruption] I hope my colleagues are all paying attention.Chris Auchinvole: Yes I’m taking notes.MIKE SABIN: Absolutely—taking notes. There is another former police officer behind me of course Mike Mitchell but as a dog handler he did not often deal with the Summary Offences Act as much as the “101 My Dog Bit Someone Act”.I just want to allude to a couple of specific features that I think draw absolute comparison with Dr Calder’s bill here. The first deals with graffiti. That is section—can I borrow your glasses? No I am only kidding. It is very very small print. That section deals with graffiti. Can you bring section 11A and 11B on the big screen? Section 11A of the Summary Offences Act deals with graffiti and section 11B talks about being in possession of items that may be—there it is right there. That is the next one I will be talking about. Section 11B deals with the instruments that may be used for graffiti purposes and then there is a subsequent offence in section 11A that actually makes it an offence to then commit the graffiti. If we draw the analogy between that and the Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill what we are actually saying is having possession of them is one thing but then there is a second step before it becomes an offence.