New law to set longer sentences for serious crimes

Offenders who commit a range of serious crimes will spend more time in jail under far-reaching sentencing reforms being introduced into Parliament this week by the Coalition Government.

Those found guilty of murder, large-scale commercial drug trafficking, culpable driving causing death and child sex offences will all face big increases in sentences.

The new law will require courts to set higher sentences not just for the most serious instances of those offences, but across the sentencing range.

Under the reforms, the average sentences for these offences will increase to:
• murder — 25 years;
• trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a drug or drugs of dependence — 14 years;
• incest with a child under 18 — 10 years;
• sexual penetration of a child under 12 years — 10 years;
• persistent sexual abuse of a child under 16 years — 10 years; and
• culpable driving causing death — nine years.

“At present, the average sentence imposed for some of these offences is appallingly inadequate,” Attorney-General Robert Clark said.

“Those who traffic in large commercial quantities of drugs, inflicting lifelong harm and suffering on young people and their families, currently receive an average sentence of seven years. Under this Bill, that will double to 14 years.

“The average sentence currently imposed for sexual penetration of a child under 12 is only three and a half years. Under the Bill, the average sentence will be 10 years.

“Sexual abuse of children is completely unacceptable, whether it occurs in an institution or in the home.

“Those who sexually abuse young children, often shattering their faith and confidence in adults close to them whom they have loved and trusted, deserve the strongest condemnation by the community.”

The Bill is the first stage of the Coalition Government’s introduction of baseline sentences, under which the community through Parliament will be able to specify not just the maximum sentence that can apply for an offence, but the average, or median, sentence that Parliament requires the courts to apply.

“Under this reform, the law will require that cases of the sort that previously received the old median sentence will in future receive the baseline sentence,” Mr Clark said.

“Thus, culpable driving cases of the sort that previously incurred the median sentence of five and a half years in jail will in future incur the baseline sentence of nine years.

“Cases that are more serious than average will be required to receive a higher sentence than the baseline, and cases that are less serious than average will be able to receive a sentence lower than the baseline.

“How the seriousness of an individual case before the court compares with the seriousness of other cases of the same offence will continue to be determined by the court in accordance with current sentencing principles based on the facts involved.

“However, what the legislation makes clear is that cases in the mid range of seriousness for an offence that would previously have received the old median sentence must in future receive the new, higher, baseline sentence specified by Parliament, with other cases of that offence having their sentences increased accordingly.”

The new law will also require that courts must order offenders sentenced for baseline offences to spend no less than a specified minimum proportion of their sentence actually in jail before they can become eligible for parole.

Offenders sentenced to 20 years or more will be required to serve a non-parole period of at least 70 per cent of the sentence in jail. The non-parole period for those sentenced to less than 20 years must be at least 60 per cent of their sentence, while those sentenced to life imprisonment will be required to serve a non-parole period of at least 30 years in jail.

The new law follows a detailed report by the Sentencing Advisory Council (SAC) in 2012. Offences to which the new law will apply include offences such as child sexual abuse and culpable driving causing death where SAC highlighted the inadequacy of current sentence levels.

These reforms add to the range of significant sentencing reforms already introduced by the Coalition Government to ensure stronger and more effective sentencing in Victoria.

These include abolishing home detention and suspended sentences, replacing the previous range of community orders with a new, stronger Community Correction Order and introducing four-year statutory minimum non-parole periods for offences of gross violence.