Tougher penalties for assaulting retail workers in NSW

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Assaults on Retail Workers) Bill 2023 has passed NSW Parliament.

The bill creates new offences into the Crimes Act 1900 for:
(1) A person who assaults, throws a missile at, stalks, harasses or intimidates a retail worker in the course of the worker’s duty, although no actual bodily harm is caused to the worker, commits an offence. Maximum penalty—imprisonment for 4 years.
(2) A person commits an offence if the person—
(a) assaults a retail worker in the course of the worker’s duty, and
(b) by the assault, causes actual bodily harm to the worker. Maximum penalty—imprisonment for 6 years.
(3) A person commits an offence if the person by any means—
(a) wounds or causes grievous bodily harm to a retail worker in the course of the worker’s duty, and
(b) is reckless as to causing actual bodily harm to the retail worker or another person. Maximum penalty—imprisonment for 11 years.
(4) For this section, an action is taken to be carried out in relation to a retail worker in the course of the worker’s duty, even if the worker is not on duty at the time, if the action is carried out as a consequence of, or in retaliation for, actions undertaken by the retail worker in the course of the worker’s duty.

The definitions of retail worker and shop for this legislation is:
• retail worker means a person whose duties primarily involve working in an area of a shop open to the public.
• shop means the whole or a part of a building, place, stall, structure, tent, vehicle or yard in which goods are sold, or offered or exposed for sale, by retail, including by auction.

Please note, whilst this a good step in the right direction, unfortunately the Bill based in its definitions will only protect part of the veterinary team.

Given the increase of abuse and assault by the public towards the whole veterinary team, the AVA has been advocating for:
• legislative protections for all veterinary team members similar to the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Assaults on frontline emergency and health workers) Bill 2022 and this Crimes Legislation Amendment (Assaults of Retail Workers) Bill 2023
• a public awareness campaign to address the rising rates of verbal and physical assault of veterinary teams and to educate the community on the impact of their actions. For example, similar to the NSW Ambulance ‘It’s Never Okay’ campaign.