Shanks Katrina: Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shanks Katrina: Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 September 2011. Volume:675;Page:21234. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call on the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) tonight. The safety and well-being of our children is an issue that National is absolutely committed to. We believe that the proposals contained in the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) close some of the worrying gaps in the law around the protection of children. I am proud to be part of a National-led Government that is fast tracking proposals to further protect children from assault neglect and ill-treatment. It is hard-hitting but in the end this legislation will help to change lives. 
The bill makes changes to ensure that children are adequately protected. It introduces new enforceable legal responsibility making a person criminally liable for the failure to protect a child or vulnerable person when another person omitted to perform a legal duty and the accused was aware of the duty and the harm the omission would inflict on the child or vulnerable person. 
This legislation broadens the scope of section 195 of the Crimes Act. It extends the application of the offence to include vulnerable adults it increases the age of a child to a person under the age of 18 years and it extends the liability for omissions to perform legal duties. A new offence of failure to protect has been introduced. It imposes criminal liability on a member of a household or a staff member of a hospital institution or residence where the victim resides who has frequent contact with a child or vulnerable adult who knows the victim is at risk of death serious injury or sexual assault as a result of an unlawful act by another person or an omission by another person to perform a legal duty and who fails to take reasonable steps to protect the victim from the risk. 
A person may be regarded as a member of a particular household even if he or she does not live in that household. If the person is so closely connected with a particular household that it is reasonable to regard him or her as a member then that person will be considered liable. Also the offender must be older than 18 years at the time of the act or omission in question to be prosecuted for failure to protect a child or vulnerable person. A person under 18 can be prosecuted only if he or she is a parent of the victim. 
The Social Services Committee also considered whether these provisions should amount to an offence subject to the three-stage regime under section 86A to 86I of the Sentencing Act 2002. Other areas covered in this bill are the scope of the claim of right defence which is available for some offences relating to property where the accused believed that they were legally entitled to deal with the property in the way that they did. The amendment will limit the defence to circumstances where defendants believe they have a personal right to the property concerned. 
The bill will also increase the penalty for carrying an offensive weapon in circumstances that prima facie show an intention to use it without reasonable excuse. The maximum penalty for the possession of an offensive weapon will be increased from 2 years’ imprisonment to 3 years’ imprisonment. 
The bill also broadens the offence of sexual grooming. Currently the offence of sexual grooming of young people in the Crimes Act does not support prosecution in situations where the sexual grooming has been discovered through covert police investigations. 
This bill is an important part of National’s work to tackle violent crime make communities safer and protect our most vulnerable people. I look forward to further debate in the House on this bill. Thank you.