Huo Raymond: Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Huo Raymond: Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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RAYMOND HUO (Labour) 
: 
 From time to time we learn from the media that yet another police officer or prison officer has been attacked. There has been a significant increase in the number of recorded assaults on police over the past 5 years. Total assaults increased by 33 percent over the 2004 to 2009 period while serious assaults leading to charges under the Crimes Act increased by 38 percent. Taking into account the increase in the number of sworn police staff over that period the rate of total assaults increased by 14 percent and serious assaults by nearly 19 percent during the period. 
The increase in the number and rate of assaults on prison staff over the same period has been sharper than the increase for police officers. Total assaults and serious assaults have both doubled during this period. There was also a sharper increase in the rate of assaults on prison staff compared with police officers although this rate is still much lower for prison officers than for sworn police officers. 
It is therefore understandable that the objective of the Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill is to ensure that the court takes into account the fact that an offence is committed against a police officer or prison officer acting in the course of his or her duty as an aggravating factor at sentencing. Labour supports this bill to go to the select committee. 
The current law especially the Crimes Act 1961 and the Summary Offences Act includes a small number of offences that specifically apply when the victim is a police officer—for example using a firearm against a law enforcement officer aggravated assault and assault on a police officer. The court must impose a minimum term of 17 years for the murder of a police officer or prison officer acting in the course of his or her duty unless it would be manifestly unjust. There are not currently any other special offences for assaults on prison officers. 
Section 9 of the Sentencing Act sets out a number of aggravating and mitigating factors that must be taken into account when the court is imposing a sentence. These include factors such as the use of actual or threatened violence whether the offence involved unlawful entry into a dwelling place and whether the offence occurred while the offender was on bail or subject to a sentence. The list of aggravating factors also includes factors that reflect community values such as whether the offender abused a position of trust or committed the offence due to hostility towards a particular group on the basis of race or religion. 
The regulatory impact statement by the Ministry of Justice notes that the courts have traditionally regarded assaults on law enforcement officers as serious. The High Court has described an attack on a police officer as equivalent to an attack on the community because our police are the representatives of the community in the matter of law and order in society. They are society’s front line. The Court of Appeal has emphasised the gravity of using serious violence against police officers and upheld deterrent sentences in a number of cases. 
In a press release dated 13 October 2010 the Minister responsible for this bill the Hon Simon Power said: “Though the new aggravating factor does not automatically require an increase in an offender’s sentence I’m confident that explicit legislation denouncing this type of offending will help ensure courts impose tough penalties.” What the Minister meant to say was that the proposed amendment would not require the court to take any specific action in terms of the type or severity of the sentence imposed. The court will I gather simply be required to take this factor into account along with other specified or unspecified aggravating factors in arriving at the appropriate sentence to be imposed in a particular case. 
In most circumstances the process the consideration and the conclusion that the court comes to will not be the slightest bit affected by this proposed amendment because the fact that an offence has been committed against a police officer or prison officer is something that the court would usually take into consideration already. On that note I look forward to learning more about how the bill would actually help ensure that courts impose tough or tougher penalties. 
I note that the Minister of Police and Minister of Corrections the Hon Judith Collins said that the Government through this bill wants to send a strong and clear message that offending against law enforcement officers is unacceptable. Again I look forward to seeing how that message will assist the bill being developed to achieve its objective. 
Having said that here is a message for the Minister: although our police must be congratulated on their successful intensified crime-fighting the crime rate drop may be short-lived and could be quickly reversed if police are targeted by Government cuts to the public sector. Who said that? The Police Association. Its president Greg O’Connor said that the gains were down to extra investment which has seen 1000 extra police officers added since 2006. So a big thankyou to Labour. The members opposite simply cannot deny the fact. As the president said the gains were extremely fragile and could be reversed if a razor was taken to the police budget. 
The message to the National-ACT Government from the police and from the general public is strong and clear: do not undo the good work. Thank you.