Page 2807 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 October 2022

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Sentencing is an inherently delicate issue. Very few of us have sat through the whole process and are aware of all the issues. It involves the judicial decision-maker weighing many, often competing, issues and synthesising them into a single result that is designed to meet the objectives of sentencing set out in the act and to meet community expectations.

Mr Hanson has talked about the Bar and the Law Society being represented on this group. Well, yes, I think it is important we have legal stakeholders on that group. But, contrary to Mr Hanson’s comments, I have also made it very clear that ACT Policing will be invited to be represented, we will be looking at having victims of crime represented and we will be looking to have general members of the community who have an interest in this space represented on the group. So Mr Hanson’s characterisation that this is simply a collection of legal stakeholders with a particular view is wrong. He knows it. It is in the press release, but he chose not to be clear about that in his comments, to make the case that he wanted to make.

I have also been very clear it will have independence. It has got to have a line of reporting, and that will be to the government, and the government will commission the work. This is about having a sustained capability to examine important issues of sentencing and law reform.

When it comes to sentencing, it is worth thinking about the purposes of sentencing that are set out in the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005. Let me read them out. These are the factors the judge has to weigh up:

(a) to ensure that the offender is adequately punished for the offence in a way that is just and appropriate;

(b) to prevent crime by deterring the offender and other people from committing the same or similar offences;

(d) to promote the rehabilitation of the offender;

(e) to make the offender accountable for his or her actions;

(f) to denounce the conduct of the offender;

(g) to recognise the harm done to the victim of the crime and the community …

This is what the judge is trying to weigh up and come to in a sentencing decision. The principles of sentencing are detailed through part 4.1 of the act and include consideration of the consequences for victims and whether the offender has sought to make reparations. The act also includes, as is the case across Australia, that a sentence of full-time imprisonment is only to be made when no other sentence is appropriate.

I would like to make a point about bail. Mr Hanson is vociferously criticising the fact that the young person accused of driving the vehicle in the weekend’s tragic incident on the Monaro Highway was supposedly in the community on bail. What Mr Hanson does not know is what the offence that young person is accused of previously for which they were given bail. Nor does he know the circumstances of that person’s life: what connections and support they have in the community; and what programs they may be attending to improve their life or rehabilitate if that is what is needed.

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