Guy opens ‘tough on crime’ election battle, writes Matt Johnston
MATTHEW Guy may well have picked a fight with a swag of judges and defence lawyers with this tough approach to sentencing. But it’s a fair bet he couldn’t care less, writes Matt Johnston.
Opinion
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MATTHEW Guy may well have picked a fight with a swag of judges and defence lawyers with this tough approach to sentencing.
But it’s a fair bet he couldn’t care less.
That’s because reducing sentencing discretion by creating mandatory minimum sentences is aimed fair and square at middle Victoria — the ground zero of the law and order crisis now gripping the state.
Guy’s promise to Victorians is that if he is elected, there will be no endless chances for thugs.
When a violent criminal gets a second chance and turns around with a two-fingered salute, they will go to jail for a long time.
The response from most voters is likely to be “about bloody time”.
The crimes of Adrian Bayley and Sean Price shocked people not just for what they were, but because they came after so many warnings and chances.
The reoffending crackdown will apply to 11 crimes, including carjackings and home invasions — crimes that have terrified people for the past year.
Under Guy’s plan, if you are convicted of an attack with a weapon, then later break into someone’s home while they sleep, you would go to jail for 10 years. At the moment, there is a three-year minimum term for an adult who commits an aggravated home invasion.
The Coalition has wisely walked away from its “baseline sentencing” approach, which created a midpoint for prison terms that no one understood and that the Court of Appeal eventually said was “incapable of being given any practical operation”.
Guy knows Victorians are sick of what he calls a “soft approach”.
The release of his plan 18 months before the next election gives Premier Daniel Andrews time to follow Guy’s lead and introduce tougher sentencing laws of his own.
If he does not do so, Victorians will have the chance next year to deliver their own verdict.
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