FrustratedQP
Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2011
- Posts
- 233
Thanks for pointing that out, that illustrates perfectly what I am saying. You’ve quoted the long title of the Act, which, yes, appears at the beginning of the Act. The long title is a description of what problem Parliament is trying to address in the Act. The long title has no operative effect itself. The problem that Parliament is addressing in this Act is that trespass (civil wrong) is not adequate to deal with unlawful entry on the lands that the Act applies to, therefore Parliament introduced some criminal offences to deal with it. None of those criminal offences are called trespass because (how many times do I have to say this?) trespass is not a crime.
No disrespect intended but it’s pretty obvious that you aren’t trained in how to read an Act so I’m not going to respond any further to the bush lawyer arguments that you persist in putting up.
First of all I can’t believe this argument follows on from my original benign statement about signs.
Yes, it also illustrates perfectly what I am saying, ask 100 people what trespass means and almost of them will describe an offence within the Act. To say trespass is not a crime is semantics. Take stealing for example ask the question and most will describe the offence of larceny, no rape it’s sexual assault etc. do you see where I am going with this.
Put simply if one enters or remains on any land surrounded or inclosed partly by a wall or fence or natural feature or any building or part of a building without the requisite permission that person commits a criminal offence. Most people think that offence is called trespass.
As you said, the long title has no effect, however it is there to describe the intention of the Act. Someone didn’t just make it up on the spot, a lot of thought went into it. That’s why the word trespass is in there.
Yesterday I asked a NSW Local Court Magistrate whether trespass is a criminal offence, guess what, he said, “yes.” No disrespect intended, but I think I will rely on his opinion and my nearly 3 decades of service as a police officer with the NSW Police when determining this issue, but thanks for your opinion anyway. I too have no more to say on this issue.
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