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Arson
Arson legislation in Australia
Introduction
All Australian states and territories have legislated offences resulting from the unlawful and malicious use of fire. In each jurisdiction it is an offence to use fire to destroy or damage property. In addition there is a Commonwealth offence of destroying or damaging property which has no special provisions regarding the use of fire, though fire could certainly be used to commit the offence.
Some jurisdictions have specific offences to do with the use of fire to endanger life, while others prosecute such offences under general provisions that prohibit endangering life or committing injury. Where a fire results in the death of a person, this would be prosecuted under general manslaughter or murder provisions.
Most jurisdictions have specific offences concerned with the setting of bushfires. In some cases these specifically identify bushfires and were typically legislated following significant bushfire incidents where some of the fires were known or suspected to have been deliberately lit.
All states and territories regard arson as a serious indictable offence with heavy penalties. In many cases arson provisions are established as an extension of criminal damage provisions, with additional penalties where the damage is carried out by means of fire or explosives. This appears to be a recognition of the potential for destruction that fire has, above and beyond most other means of committing damage. Indictable offence provisions relating to arson are summarised in the table Summary of arson legislation - indictable offences.
In addition to legislation establishing indictable offences under the criminal law for the deliberate and malicious use of fire, most jurisdictions have a range of summary offences relating to the inappropriate lighting of fires in national parks, forests and other open areas. These are typically enacted under legislation covering land management activities such as forestry or national parks legislation, or legislation establishing and governing rural and country fire services.
A range of summary provisions are set out in the table Summary of arson legislation - summary offences (bushfires). This list is not fully comprehensive. As well as other provisions that may exist in land management-related legislation, there are other prohibitions on the inappropriate use of fire that, for instance, arise incidentally in local council bylaws and legislation governing the use of particular facilities or public areas. The list in this table nonetheless will give an appreciation of the range and type of provisions that exist.