Recommendation

The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has examined the Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill and recommends that it be passed with the amendments shown.

Introduction

The Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Summary Offences Act 1981, to make it an offence for a person to possess a hand-held laser in a public place without reasonable excuse, and to empower police to seize and retain any such laser.

The bill as introduced defines a hand-held laser as any hand-held device designed or adapted to emit a laser beam.

Name of the bill

We recommend changing the name of the bill to refer more accurately to the type of laser it seeks to control. An amendment to re-title the bill “Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill” would reflect our recommended change to the definition of the devices covered, and thus avoid any confusion about the bill’s applicability.

Commencement date

We recommend amending the start date so that the legislation would come into force 28 days after the date on which it received Royal assent. This would provide the public with reasonable notice of the law change.

Seizure of lasers

We recommend deleting the seizure provision in clause 4, section 13B(2). It is not necessary, as seizure powers are available to police under the Search and Surveillance Act 2012.

Definition of hand-held laser

We consider that the definition of “hand-held laser” proposed in clause 4, section 13B(4) is too broad. In order to provide certainty and clarity for the police, for the courts, and for people wanting to own such devices, we recommend an amendment to adopt the definition of “high-power laser pointers” in the Customs Import Prohibition (High-power Laser Pointers) Order 2013. Adopting this definition, which includes all devices with a power output of greater than 1 milliwatt, would ensure consistency with other legislation, such as the Health (High-power Laser Pointers) Regulations 2013.

We recommend consequential replacement of the phrase “hand-held laser” wherever it occurs in the bill with “high-power laser pointer”.