New legislation aims to provide safer entertainment precincts
Proposed new legislation will exclude convicted offenders and perpetrators of antisocial behaviour in designated Protected Entertainment Precincts from entering those areas.
The Liquor Control Amendment (Protected Entertainment Precincts) Bill 2022 has been drafted to introduce exclusion orders from Protected Entertainment Precincts and mandatory exclusion for people convicted of serious violent offences.
Under the proposed legislation, parts of Northbridge/Perth CBD, Fremantle, Scarborough, Hillarys and Mandurah will become Protected Entertainment Precincts although boundaries are still to be confirmed.
Colloquially known as Raco’s Law, the exclusion order regime was developed in response to an unprovoked one-punch attack in Northbridge that resulted in the death of Perth man Giuseppe Raco.
The State Government developed the proposed legislation in consultation with the Raco family, who launched the Justice for Peppe campaign to strengthen laws around violent offences in entertainment precincts.
The proposed legislation contains three types of exclusion:
- A short-term exclusion order issued by the Commissioner of Police, which will exclude a person from all Protected Entertainment Precincts for up to six months.
- An extended exclusion order issued by the Director of Liquor Licensing on the application of the Commissioner of Police, which will exclude a person from all Protected Entertainment Precincts for up to five years.
- Mandatory exclusion from all Protected Entertainment Precincts when a person is convicted of committing a serious offence in a public place in a Protected Entertainment Precinct, for a five-year period.
The proposed penalty for breaching an exclusion order will be a fine of $12,000 and imprisonment for two years or a fine of $12,000 and imprisonment for five years for breaching a mandatory exclusion order. Exemptions to exclusion from the precincts will apply for work, residential, education, health and other approved purposes.
Consultation will begin with stakeholders to refine the precinct boundaries ahead of the Liquor Control Amendment (Protected Entertainment Precincts) Bill 2022 being introduced to Parliament next month.