Qld criminals to face longer waits before eligible to reapply for parole under new laws

Murderers, rapists and big-time drug traffickers will be forced to wait years between their bids for freedom under major changes to Queensland’s parole laws designed to ease the burden of victims and their families.

Murderers, rapists and big-time drug traffickers will be forced to wait years between their bids for freedom under major changes to Queensland’s parole laws designed to ease the burden of victims and their families.

Under existing law Queensland’s worst-of-the-worst criminals — including child killers like Brett Peter Cowan and murderers with multiple victims — can be blocked from applying for parole for an additional 10 years beyond their eligibility date.

As it stands, a majority of prisoners can reapply for parole six months after they’ve unsuccessfully tried, while those on life sentences can be made to wait three years.

But proposed new laws mean murderers who fail in their bid for freedom can be made to wait up to five years to reapply while those serving sentences of 10 years or more will be made to wait up to three years from the current six months.

All other prisoners can be made to wait up to 12 months.

Woodford Correctional Centre. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Corrective Services Minister Nikki Boyd said the laws would help reduce the trauma felt by victims and their families when perpetrators make repeated parole applications.

“I have met with several victims of crime and peak bodies (and) they have been clear that, as victims, repeated parole applications can leave them re-traumatised.

“That is why this bill extends the maximum parole periods the board may set to protect victims of crime from further trauma.”

She said the laws would also give the independent Parole Board “more discretion to set an appropriate period that reflects the prisoner’s prospects of release”.

Proposed new laws mean murderers who fail in their bid for freedom can be made to wait up to five years to reapply. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Queensland Homicide Victims’ Support Group chief executive Brett Thompson said murder was the worst crime in the highest category and the organisation had long advocated for the trauma felt by families and friends to be considered in parole decisions.

“We feel it’s important to give people the opportunity, so that they also then feel part of the system, where for so long, they genuinely feel as if they’re just along for the ride,” he said.

Under the new laws the parole board may have regard to the likely effect a further application for a parole may have on victims and families.

The laws are part of a suite of changes which include significant changes to the way police officers search people.

Under the changes police must ask those they plan to search if they have any preference of the gender of the officer who conducts the search, in a move designed to provide protections to gender diverse Queenslanders.

This includes allowing a person the right, if they are exercising it in good faith, to be searched by a different officer for the upper and lower parts of the body.