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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 626 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

I have talked to very senior judges in the Court of Appeal in New South Wales who are very happy with the way it has gone and who swear by it. They are judges who have made their living as defence lawyers or in other areas and could hardly be called rednecks. The government should not just pooh-pooh sentencing guidelines. They should seriously look at them. If they are not going to bring them in, we certainly will attempt to bring in legislation that would get them up and running.

If the Attorney bothers to talk to members of our judiciary and our magistrates, he will find that the majority of them favour of something along the lines of what New South Wales is doing. (Extension of time granted.) I urge the Attorney not to let his natural prejudice and his instinct to ensure the judges' roles are unfettered get in the way of talking to people about looking at sentencing guidelines very seriously. I think they are terribly important for our continually evolving legal system.

Ms Tucker went somewhat overboard in talking about addressing the root causes. She ignored the fact that some people need to be locked up. The same applies to Ms Dundas.

It has been a useful debate. I am somewhat sorry but not surprised that our motion will not succeed. I fear, however, that with some of the views expressed we may see a winding back or changes to the detriment of some very important laws that have benefited the ordinary innocent law-abiding citizens of Canberra.

Ms Tucker has one point. Yes, there are problems at the Remand Centre. There is some overcrowding there. That is hardly a reason not to enact laws to protect the community. In fact, it would be a dereliction of our duty if because we could not afford it or because there might not be enough room at the Remand Centre we did not enact laws that protected the community. We were going down the path of building an ACT prison and expanding remand facilities. That is essential.

The community expects that people who commit serious crimes that should attract a jail term are actually jailed. I will never resile from that as long as I am in the Assembly, nor will I resile from trying to change attitudes so that the community is protected, we have decent laws that ensure our police can do their job without one hand being tied behind their backs and there are processes in place so that if people do commit serious crime the punishment fits the crime.

We need to look at correctional facilities. I hope that under the new government the prison just has not gone into the too-hard basket. It is important to ensure that if people are jailed the system works and they have the facilities and the training to ensure that they come out better equipped for society than when they went in. Education and training are crucially important.

That can lead to real rehabilitation. I have known people who have gone through state prison systems and availed themselves of the training there, who have come out and who have not reoffended but been useful members of society. It is crucially important that we fast track the prison to ensure that we have control over what happens in prison and ensure that the right programs are put in place to give people every opportunity and training to go out and lead useful lives. Some probably never will. Unfortunately, there are some people who are just bad. But a lot of people in prison can be trained so that when they come out they can lead useful lives.

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