Too Little, Too Late on Supervision Order Extension

Almost 10 months after announcing it would act, the Brumby Government has finally got around to producing legislation to implement part of the Opposition’s policy to provide greater protection for the community against high risk serious offenders, said Robert Clark, Shadow Attorney-General.

Today the government has announced it proposes to extend the existing law, which applies to sex offences against children, to apply to sex offenders against adults as well.

However, the new laws will not apply to other high risk serious offenders such as murderers or arsonists.

The Opposition believes the courts should be given the power to order any serious offender – not just a sex offender – to be subject to ongoing detention or other restrictions, if the court is satisfied there is a high risk of them committing further serious offences if released.

It was Liberal Party policy at the last state election to: “broaden the scope of Extended Supervision Orders (ESOs), used to maintain scrutiny over serious criminals like Mr Baldy at the end of their prison term, so that they cover all serious offences including murder and rape.”

The government has previously defeated Opposition moves in Parliament to extend the scope of extended supervision orders. Instead, their response was to ‘look into’ the issue, by referring it to the Sentencing Advisory Council in May 2006.

In July last year, the Sentencing Advisory Council released a report opposing the use of continuing detention as an option, but saying if the government is going to have continuing detention laws, the existing laws should be extended to murder, manslaughter and attempted murder.

The government responded to the report at the time saying it would apply to extend the laws, but only to apply to all sex offenders. However, it has taken the Brumby Government almost 10 months since last July to finally get this legislation to the Parliament.

This late and limited extension of these important laws further demonstrates the government’s tardy and inadequate attitude to protecting the community.