I commend the Government for the expeditious manner in which these amendments have been handled. It is certainly needed and it has been of concern to the police for some long period of time. To police it was always of grave concern that a person could in fact witness a killing of a human being by another and provided they did not aid, abet, instigate, incite or in fact become an accessory to the murder after the murder, there was no onus on those persons to report that crime to any authority whatsoever. In fact, failing to do so was not an offence. They could do that with impunity and not be committing an offence.

It is common knowledge that the investigation of a crime is made much easier by the prompt reporting to police of the crime. In this instance we are talking about the killing, murder, of a person by another person which, in fact, is the most serious crime within our statutes, a very, very serious crime. It has always been my position that reporting of any indictable crime should be mandatory of any actual witness or person who becomes aware of such crime.

I think many people out there would be horrified to realise that a person witnessing a murder, provided they were not involved in any way whatsoever, was not obliged to report the circumstances and, in fact, was committing no offence. I think the public would be horrified by that, hence the need for the amendments as well. It is abhorrent to most of us, I would say, to accept that prior to this bill a person witnessing a horrific abuse by another person, an abuse that was likely to kill that person, also had no responsibility or onus to report that matter. Again, they were committing no offence. I think that that also is and would be abhorrent to the normal person to realise that that sort of a position could occur. That now, with this amendment, will be satisfied.

My concern is this: what is the situation when a person is suspicious and may believe that another person has been killed? I will give an example. If they were to walk into this room and see a body on the floor, two gunshots and a gun probably close by, they may believe that the person has been killed. But in fact they may believe it is suicide. Under this legislation they would not have to report the incident. They could walk in here, turn around and walk back out. In that regard, they have committed no offence at all by my understanding of the law. I find that fairly difficult to accept as well. Is that the intent of this legislation? The honourable member may well be able to satisfy my concerns in relation to that. It is of concern. That has been raised with me, Mr President. I would have liked to have seen any new legislation in this regard address that as well because I think it is abhorrent for any person to find a body anywhere, whether the person might have died of natural causes, suicided, been killed or what have you, and then be able to walk away and not report the matter at all. It is very clear that when people suicide there is no sign up to say that they have suicided. They might leave a letter at times. And, people, there are many examples, I can tell you, of where a suspected suicide or where a suicide has been reported and the matter in fact has been murder. I can give an example, Mr President, of a case that I, myself, was involved in at Devonport where a lady was shot through the mouth. The matter was not reported to police for some time. It was finally reported to police as suicide and on further investigation it was found that it was a murder. The offender was charged and in fact was convicted of the murder of that person and served a long term of incarceration. This is the point I am making: it ought to be mandatory for the reporting of all circumstances of where a body is found. I just read a couple of passages from this bill. The bill reads:

'A person is guilty of a crime if he or she -

(a) discovers that another person has been killed;' -

and then it goes on to say:

'(b) fails without reasonable excuse to report that discovery'.

So under this legislation they must know that the person has been killed. And that, to me, raises some concerns. I do not believe that this bill goes far enough. I accept that the bill is intended to address murder. But, as I have said, many murder charges have arisen from suspected suicides and/or deaths that from the outset in fact have appeared to be deaths from natural causes, and there are a number of examples there that I could provide where a person appears to have died from natural circumstances but at the end of the day it has proven to be a murder or manslaughter.

The other point I want to make is in relation to robbery - the changes to Appendix A. That is welcomed with the addition of robbery. I think that to police it was always a rather silly situation that you could arrest a person for assault without a warrant but then if a person committed robbery you had to then go and seek a warrant to execute the arrest of that person. So that makes commonsense and I fully support that. Whilst I support the bill, I do not believe it goes far enough and I would like to have seen a situation within the bill which requires that a person finding a dead body, under any circumstances, was obliged to report the death of that person.

Mr Fletcher - You could move an amendment to that.

Mr DEAN - Yes.

Mr Fletcher - If you argue a compelling case. If it is a compelling case it ought to be tested.

Mr DEAN - I am and I will move an amendment to that part of this bill.