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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4752 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

We are all part of a system. We all need to do better to do our duty to the people we are sworn to serve and sworn to protect in this community. We have a duty to the public as legislators, we have a duty to protect the public. Those of you who vote against this bill are failing in your duty, unlike, might I say, your comrades in New South Wales and the New South Wales Labor Party who have introduced sensible legislation, which I am really replicating here.

It is interesting that Mr Stanhope has been having a great go at my standard minimum non-parole periods, which Bob Carr introduced last year; good on him! In response to the question, "Should life imprisonment mean a minimum of 20 years in jail?", 74 per cent of ACT citizens said yes. Guess what, Mr Stanhope? In Bob Carr's legislation and in my bill that you are about to reject, the standard non-parole period for murder is 20 years; 20 years! That is absolutely spot on in terms of what Canberra citizens actually expect.

Incidentally, I had absolutely nothing to do with that. They didn't even ring me about that one, although I see you are quoted. It is not so much a coincidence; it is absolutely in line with what the public wants in this bill? Of course, this government and Mr Stanhope pooh-pooh what happens in New South Wales. But this government will follow New South Wales when it suits them. I think Ms Gallagher today said that we are following New South Wales in some industrial relations matter. Mr Quinlan is the first to say, "Yes, we'll do that; we'll increase taxes and rates to get a bit of extra money. Yes, they're doing it in New South Wales. We must have this cross-border consistency". Why not in the criminal law?

I have seen in my 15 years or so years practising in the ACT instances of criminals who are sentenced to jail for an armed robbery in Queanbeyan getting a bond in the ACT. Queanbeyan is very much part of this region Yes, Jon Stanhope, we are very different from Sydney and we are very different from Melbourne and I hope we always remain so, but Queanbeyan is in our region.

Not only have I seen that in terms of what has been reported in the media. I have seen that in practice. I have gone to the Queanbeyan court as a prosecutor. I have seen people there for all manner of offences get two, three or four times the penalty, be it fines or imprisonment, than they do in the ACT for identical offences. That is not right.

I have talked to criminals who have come to Canberra because we are a softer touch and they know if they are caught and they go before our court system the great likelihood is that they are going to get a much weaker penalty. That is something, too, which really points to the fact we do need greater consistency with New South Wales. I believe we should have greater consistency right throughout Australia, and I hope a lot of these issues will ultimately be addressed through criminal codes and maybe common sentencing policies throughout the Commonwealth of Australia, but that is going to take a long time.

In the meantime, the least we can do is replicate sensible, commonsense measures that the state of New South Wales, the Labor state of New South Wales, led by a Labor premier, has introduced. That state has introduced a large number of these things which I have in my bill, and the provisions are in force in New South Wales. The least we can

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