11 April 2025
Guy Barnett, Attorney-General
The Government is seeking public input on the proposed Dangerous Criminals and High Risk Offenders Amendment Bill 2025 (the Bill).
Attorney-General Guy Barnett said this Bill was an important step towards delivering a key commitment under the Government’s Strong 2030 Plan for Tasmania's Future, to crack down on crime, by ensuring all child sex offenders can be considered for high risk offender orders.
"The amendments in this Bill are common sense and deliver on our Government’s commitment to ensure the safety of our community and protect victim survivors,” Attorney-General Barnett said.
The Bill makes the following amendments to the Dangerous Criminals and High Risk Offenders Act 2021:
- Provide that, when making a HRO order, the Court may order that the offender is detained for a period of up to seven days beyond the day on which the offender would cease to be in custody, if the Court is satisfied that such a period of time is required to make arrangements to give effect to the conditions imposed under the HRO order
- Clarify that a conviction for attempting to commit a serious offence (a crime that is listed in Schedule 1 to the Act) is considered to be a conviction for a serious offence for purposes of the Act
o Expand the list of serious offences within Schedule 1 to the Act to include additional child sexual offences. This expands the offences in relation to which High Risk Offender orders can be considered.
o Clarify that the operational period of a HRO order is not extended when that order is suspended for a period.
Public submissions in response to the Bill must be received by midnight on Monday 5 May 2025.
A copy of the Bill and details on how to make a submission are available on the Department of Justice website www.justice.tas.gov.au/community-consultation