Civil Liability Amendment (Offender Damages) Bill 2004
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: Few things make the community more angry than when offenders benefit while their victims are penalised. This bill provides a level playing field for benefits. Those in charge of offenders have a duty of care for those in custody, but those in custody have no greater right to damages than do normal employees. The Christian Democratic Party supports the Civil Liability Amendment (Offender Damages) Bill. The main purpose of the bill is to amend the Civil Liability Act 2002 to ensure that the damages that can be awarded to offenders injured in custody or while performing community service work resulting from the negligence of a government department or authority or other person exercising official functions are not greater than those available to a worker suffering the same injuries in the course of employment.
We are living in an era of litigation and extreme awards, which means that every one of us pays part of the cost of the award to those who receive damages. The principal amendments in the bill mean that one fault-based negligence scheme will be established, combining liability, assessment of injury, and payment of damages. The scheme will apply equally to inmates, periodic detainees, home detainees, juvenile detainees, and adults and juveniles performing work under a community service order. There is a great deal of victim anger in the community. Last Saturday, while in the local shopping centre, I was approached by a man wearing a T-shirt carrying the words “Bring back the biff”. I asked him why he wanted to return to an era of unjust biff and bash, and I discovered I was talking to a very angry victim who seemed to have suffered greatly while those who had perpetrated a crime against him seemed to have got off quite lightly. The community anger in such cases can be easily understood, because our concern for offenders’ rights and benefits has outstripped our concern for victims’ rights.
Under the bill, damages for economic loss and for past and future loss of earnings, as well as damages for non-economic loss, are limited to the equivalent of damages payable to an injured worker under workers compensation statutes. The Christian Democratic Party supports the bill. The concept of personal responsibility is proper, and the bill helps us redress the problem of people making claims for negligence for every injury sustained while they are in government care.