Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

CRIMES ACT 1914 - SECT 15AB

  (1)   In determining whether to grant bail to a person charged with, or convicted of, an offence against a law of the Commonwealth or the Northern Territory, or in determining conditions to which bail granted to such a person should be subject, a bail authority:

  (a)   must take into consideration the potential impact of granting bail on:

  (i)   any person against whom the offence is, or was, alleged to have been committed; and

  (ii)   any witness, or potential witness, in proceedings relating to the alleged offence, or offence; and

  (b)   must not take into consideration any form of customary law or cultural practice as a reason for:

  (i)   excusing, justifying, authorising, requiring or lessening the seriousness of the alleged criminal behaviour to which the alleged offence relates, or the criminal behaviour to which the offence relates; or

  (ii)   aggravating the seriousness of the alleged criminal behaviour to which the alleged offence relates, or the criminal behaviour to which the offence relates.

  (2)   If a person referred to in subparagraph   (1)(a)(i) or (ii) is living in, or otherwise located in, a remote community, the bail authority must also take into consideration that fact in considering the potential impact of granting bail on that person.

  (3)   In paragraph   (1)(b):

"criminal behaviour" includes:

  (a)   any conduct, omission to act, circumstance or result that is, or forms part of, a physical element of the offence in question; and

  (b)   any fault element relating to such a physical element.

  (3A)   Paragraph   (1)(b) does not apply in relation to an offence against the following:

  (a)   section   22 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 ;

  (b)   sections   15A, 15C, 17B, 22A, 27A, 74AA, 142A, 142B, 207B, 354A, 355A and 470 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 ;

  (c)   section   48 of the Aboriginal Land and Waters (Jervis Bay Territory) Act 1986 ;

  (d)   sections   69 and 70 of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 ;

  (e)   section   30 of the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 ;

  (f)   sections   33, 34 and 35 of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act 1989 (NT);

  (h)   section   4 of the Aboriginal Land Act 1978 (NT);

  (i)   sections   111, 112 and 113 of the Heritage Act 2011 (NT);

  (j)   any other law prescribed by the regulations that relates to:

  (i)   entering, remaining on or damaging cultural heritage; or

  (ii)   damaging or removing a cultural heritage object.

  (4)   To avoid doubt, except as provided by subsections   (1), (2) and (3A), this section does not affect:

  (a)   any other matters that a bail authority must, must not or may take into consideration in determining whether to grant bail or in determining conditions to which bail should be subject; or

  (b)   the operation of a law of a State or a Territory.

Note:   Subsections   (1) and (2) indirectly affect laws of the States and Territories because they affect section   68 of the Judiciary Act 1903 .