South Australian Current Acts South Australian Current Acts85B—Special provision for causing bushfire
(1) A person who
causes a bushfire—
(a)
intending to cause a bushfire; or
(b)
being recklessly indifferent as to whether his or her conduct causes a
bushfire,
is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for life.
(2) A bushfire is a
fire that burns, or threatens to burn, out of control causing damage to
vegetation (whether or not other property is also damaged or threatened).
(3) An offence is not
committed against this section if—
(a) the
bushfire only damages vegetation (or other property) on either or both of the
following:
(i)
the land of the person who causes the fire;
(ii)
the land of a person who authorised, or consented, to the
act of the person who caused the fire; or
(b)
—
(i)
the bushfire is caused in the course of carrying out a
fire prevention, fire suppression or other land management activity; and
(ii)
at the time the activity was carried out—
(A) there was in force a provision made by
or under an Act or by a code of practice approved under an Act, that regulated
or otherwise applied to the carrying out of the activity and the person in
carrying out that activity acted in accordance with the provision; and
(B) the person believed that their conduct
in carrying out the activity was justified having regard to all of the
circumstances.
(4) A court that finds
a defendant guilty of an offence against this section must make an order under
section 124 of the Sentencing Act 2017 requiring the defendant to
pay compensation for injury, loss or damage resulting from the offence
unless—
(a) the
defendant is aged under 16 years of age; or
(b) the
court is satisfied that the defendant has no means of paying compensation; or
(c) the
court is otherwise satisfied that special circumstances exist.